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reconsidered and left it running.
    Don’t disturb anything
, a quiet, logical voice told her, even as she mentally registered the explanation for Dirk’s wet hair and soap-slick, nude body.
This isn’t Dirk’s trailer anymore
, the former-cop voice cautioned.
It’s a crime scene. Worse, a homicide scene.
    She took the robe into the living room and draped it over his shoulders. “Can you stand up, darlin’?” she said, in the same tone she would have used with an injured, frightened child.
    Again, he nodded, and she supported him under the elbow as he rose from the floor and stood on trembling legs. “Here,” she said, easing his arms into the robe. “Let’s get you wrapped up, kiddo. You’re colder than a mackerel.” She pulled the terry cloth tight around him and tied the belt in front. “There ya go. Now, come over here and set yourself down.
    Next to a fold-down table was a molded plastic lawn chair… Dirk’s idea of practical dining equipment. She pushed him into it and dragged its mate next to his and sat down. “Tell me what happened,” she said, “but make it snappy. Your favorite neighbor has already ratted you out to 911. The cops are on their way, and you’ve gotta get a call in before they arrive.”
    “Harry called it in?”
    “He told them you were shooting off cherry bombs, so they probably aren’t exactly burning the wind to get here. We’ve got a minute or two. How did that happen?” She nodded toward Polly’s still figure without looking in her direction. Long ago, she had discovered that corpses you know are always harder to view than those of total strangers. Even after years of seeing things that made her old for her age, Savannah had never gotten over the shocking difference between a live body and a dead one. In moments… such an astonishing transformation. It always made her feel her own mortality.
    “Was it an accident?” she asked, giving him the benefit of the doubt, afraid of what she was about to hear.
    “No, I don’t think so. Somebody broke in while I was in the shower.”
    “Broke in?” Savannah glanced around. No open windows and the door didn’t appear to have been forced or the lock jimmied. Maybe from the outside.
    “Yeah, or she let them in. I don’t know.” His teeth had stopped chattering, and his eyes were losing their glazed look. She looked down at his feet and hands; they were turning from grayish blue to a normal flesh color.
    “You were in the shower.”
    “Yeah. We’d had an argument, and I told her I was going to hose down and go to bed… that she’d better be gone by the time I got outta the shower.”
    “What did you fight about?”
    He shrugged and shook his head. “What did we always fight about. Stupid shit. Her bummin’ money off me all the time, giving me some sob story about how broke she is.”
    “So, you went into the shower and…?”
    “I was in there a couple of minutes, soaping up, washing my hair, when I heard a bang.”
    “The gun?”
    “Yeah, but I wasn’t sure that was what it was, with the shower running on my head, you know. Anyway, I ran out here to see what was goin’ on, and I ran right into the guy.”
    “What guy?”
    “Some dude standing about right there…” He pointed to a spot on the floor about four feet from where Polly’s body lay. “He had my weapon in his hand and was pointing it at Polly. She was… she was down there, where she’s at now.”
    Savannah nodded. “Did you recognize him? Anybody you know?”
    “I don’t think so. I didn’t get that good a look at him, before I jumped him.”
    “You tackled him?”
    “Yeah. He smacked me on the head with the gun, but I got it away from him.”
    “But you couldn’t hold him with it?”
    Dirk shook his head. “Naw, my hand was wet and soapy and I dropped the damned thing. He bolted out the door. By the time I picked it up again and chased him, he was gone.”
    “You chased him outside?”
    “Yeah, but he was gone. I didn’t even see