BECAUSE THE NIGHT
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walk out the door like the movie and Havilland never existed. We were getting ready to walk when Havilland called out ‘Now!’ Marty Bergen could have walked out with us. But then you showed up with your shotgun.”
When Lloyd remained silent, Linda said, “Babe, it was the right thing to do, and I love you for it. Richard and I took off running, and you could have put the cops on to us, but you didn’t, because of what you felt for me. There’s no rights and wrongs in this one. Don’t you know that?”
Lloyd brought his eyes back from deep nowhere. “No, I don’t know that. Oldfield killed an innocent woman. He has to pay. And then there’s us. What about that?”
“Richard has paid,” Linda said in a whisper. “God, has he paid. For the record, he’s long gone. I don’t know where he is, and I don’t want to know, and if I did know, I wouldn’t tell you.”
“Do you have any idea what you did? Do you, goddamn it!”
Linda’s whisper was barely audible. “Yes. I figured out that I could walk, and I convinced someone else that he could, too. He deserves the chance. Don’t lay your guilt on me, Hopkins. If Richard hadn’t gotten hooked up with Havilland he never would have killed a fly. What are the odds of his meeting someone else like the Witch Doctor? It’s over, Hopkins. Just let it be.”
Lloyd balled his fists and stared up at the ceiling to hold back a flood of tears. “It’s not over. And what about us?”
Linda put a tentative hand on his shoulder. “I never saw Richard hurt anybody, but I saw what you did to Havilland. If I hadn’t seen it, maybe we could have given it a shot. But now that’s over, too.”
Lloyd stood up. When Linda’s hand dropped from his shoulder, he said,
“I’m going after Oldfield. I’ll try to keep your name out of it, but if I can’t, I won’t. One way or the other, I’m going to get him.”
Linda got to her feet and took Lloyd’s hands. “I don’t doubt it for a minute. This is getting funny and sad and weird, Hopkins. Will you hold me for a minute and then split?”
Lloyd shut his eyes and held the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, closing out the L.A. end of the Havilland case. When he felt Linda start to retreat from the embrace, he turned around and walked, thinking that it was over and it would never be over and wondering how he could get the Herzog/Bergen book published.
Outside, the night shone in jetstreams of traffic light and in flames from a distant brush fire. Lloyd drove home and fell asleep on the couch with his clothes on.