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“You think I don’t know what you’re about to say, Della. It’s fucked up, right?”

I stand. “Then, let me help. We can get out of here together. Now.”

Evan shakes his head. “They’ve made it clear I won’t survive this if I don’t finish what I started.”

“What did you start?”

“I suppose there’s no harm in telling you. Bennett approached me. Guess they’d done some investigation into me and found out that not only was I broke, but I’d just taken out a loan with a loan shark to pay for my accommodation. He approached me six months ago and offered me twenty-five thousand dollars to pollute the land and mess a little with your research.”

“Six months ago. But that’s before Velaro lost that big contract.”

Evan rubs a hand over his face. “I wouldn’t have done it if I wasn’t desperate, Della. You have to believe me. I figured one stretch of waterway out of all the others was the price I’d have to pay for the ability to stay at the university and finish my research.” He looks to the vat. “I found the chemicals here, by chance. Was able to steal them without anyone noticing.”

I gesture between the two of us. “The price was clearly too high. So, how did you go from that to this?”

“The first night I poisoned the water, they recorded me. Threatened to go to the university anonymously and show them. I’d be kicked off my course. My research wouldn’t get done. All those years. All that debt.”

Disgust curdles in my gut. “I’m guessing that, after that, they could get you to do whatever they wanted. Was it you, that night, when I was chased?”

He looks out of the window, then, back to me. Bennett must be closing in, but I’m hoping the roads are empty, and that Sunny sees Bennett’s car.

“It was. I told them you were going there that night. But then, they said I needed to follow you and make it look like an accident. They almost didn’t believe me when I said you’d managed to escape me, but you knew every pathway and trail so well, and I had to go more slowly. They forced me to make an official complaint against your research, to discredit you, for the mistake I made not killing you.”

I look down at the rough wooden floor. There are sawdust shavings between the planks. “I don’t understand why they didn’t just kill me themselves. We should still go to the police.” The lies are becoming easier. “What if I didn’t press charges? We could tell them about Bennett.”

“With what proof, Della. They paid me cash. Cash I gave straight to the loan shark to pay off my debt. There is no proof Bennett paid me.”

I point to the phone he slid in his pocket. “What about that conversation? That’s proof you spoke to him.”

Exasperated, Evan takes a threatening step towards me. “And he tells the police they were thinking of offering me a scholarship or a job or it was a misdial. There is zero proof he colluded with me to do anything. I’m the one who chased you, who ransacked your motel room, who broke into your camper van, who turned off the fridge at the university, who messed with your research findings, who made the complaint. And even if I tell the police about Bennett, my life is ruined.” He tugs a hand through his hair as his voice rises in distress. “I’ve got no choice, Della. I’m sorry. This is the only way it ends.”

I’m losing any chance at gaining control of the conversation. Panic rises faster than a hurricane tide. “No. Please. He’s only going to kill you too. He’ll make it look like a murder suicide or something.”

Sunny’s is the name I cry out as Evan grabs me by the shoulder and throws me down to the floor, onto my knees.

And it’s Sunny’s face I see when I feel the cold muzzle of Evan’s gun at the base of my skull.

36

SUNNY

Itry to redial. But nothing. And then, my cellphone coverage goes completely.

“Fuck,” I shout, and slam my fist down on my bike.

We’re heading into a no-man’s-land without any coverage. There’s a field station storage shed ahead, and I’m hopeful we’ll see Evan’s parked car, but we don’t.

We come off the last paved stretch of road onto the service track, but Ridge raises his hand for a hard stop to the convoy. He points off into the distance, and through the trees, around the curve of the bay by the farm of fruit trees, I see a car, matching the description of Evan’s, parked crooked by some silos and smaller outbuildings. The trunk is open.

Everything in me goes red. I’m off the bike and tossing my helmet to the ground before I know I’ve moved. I don’t wait to establish a safe perimeter. I don’t look to see where Evan is.

“Cool your fucking heels, cowboy,” Havoc grunts as he jumps from his bike and wraps his arms around me.

“Perimeter,” Knox says. “Lock, want you to immobilize his vehicle. Tires. Engine. Whatever you have to do. The rest of you, arc out in a semicircle until we find Della. Ridge, your only job is to keep Sunny alive. We go in on foot, so, park your bikes.”

“And Evan. Della needs him alive,” North says. “You’re gonna remember that for your girl, right, Sunny?”

I glance back over my shoulder. I want to say no. I want to kill that motherfucker with my bare hands. I strung up a man for saying things that upset Della. Evan deserves worse.