The producer told Beth they were light again so again she exchanged some banter with the meteorologist, saying, “More rain tomorrow?” Like it was his fault. The meteorologist did his meteorologist thing, shrugging his shoulders in submission. Beth frowned out a disappointed smile and signed off.

She took off her microphone. In the hallway, she took off her jacket. Beneath the jacket she wore a white blouse and a black skirt. She saw the detective at the end of the hall.

Hastings held up his hands in an apologetic gesture. He said, “I’m sorry, I should have called first. I think I may have gotten the case resolved. And I remembered what you asked me. About maybe doing a story?”

“Oh,” Beth said. “Yes.”

“I hope it’s not too late to discuss it. It won’t take long.”

“It’s all right.” Beth smiled at him. “Shall we go to my office?”

“I think that would be great.” Hastings picked up a briefcase and followed her.

In her office, she took a bottled water out of a mini-refrigerator. She took a liberal swig of it before she sat in the chair behind her desk.

She looked at him and smiled again, marking her self-consciousness. “Sorry,” she said. “It gets hot under the lights. Can I offer you something to drink?”

“No, I’m good.”

“So. What have you found out?”

“Well, we finally got a break the other day. Just after I talked with you, actually. It seems like Johnny was mixed up with a couple of fellows from Bosnia. A couple of tough guys who claimed Johnny owed them money.”

“For what? Drugs?”

“That’s what I thought it might be. But no, it wasn’t drugs. It was a car. Johnny test-drove a car they had and he wrecked it. Or, rather, his friend wrecked it. Or damaged it. Then after they damaged the vehicle, they just took off.”

Hastings laughed and Beth Tanner joined him.

“Yeah,” Hastings said. “Just took off. Didn’t leave a note or anything. Well, this really pissed these Bosnians off. And they came looking for Johnny.”

“I’m sorry for laughing,” Beth said. “I know it’s not funny.”

“It’s all right, I understand. Like you said before, you develop sort of a thick skin in this business. Anyway, as I was saying, these Bosnians came looking for Johnny. And they found him.”

“And then what?”

“Then — well then I believe they requested that he buy the car that he had damaged. I believe they demanded something on the order of six thousand dollars. And poor old Johnny, he didn’t have that. After that, it gets a little hazy. Johnny’s not around anymore, so we can’t really ask him what he did. I suppose he could have called his sister or his brother and asked them for the money. But then he didn’t really have any sort of relationship with them. He had written them off years ago. Which was too bad, because I think if he had called his father and told him the truth, his father would have probably given him the money. And then he wouldn’t have been killed.”

“His father?”

“Yeah. He lives in Kirksville. A nice fellah, actually. From a small town. Well, like you.”

Beth gave the detective a curious glance.

Hastings said, “And I suppose Johnny could have called his friend Aaron and asked him for the money. And if Aaron had the money, he probably would have given it to him because Aaron was dumb enough to be sort of enamored with Johnny. But then if Aaron had given Johnny the money, Aaron’s boyfriend would have probably found out about it and thrown him out. And as for other friends…well, Johnny didn’t really have any other friends. Not any real friends. He had a lot of acquaintances, people who thought he was a sort of charming rogue, but he didn’t have many friends. So that’s why he called you.”

Beth tilted her head, as if to think about it. “Because he thought we were friends?”

“No, not hardly,” Hastings said. He smiled then. “No, he may not have been the brightest guy in the world, but he wasn’t bone stupid either. He knew what you were. Well, maybe not completely.”

Now she did not conceal her hostility. “Sorry?”

Hastings said, “You know, my friends tell me I have a sort of weakness for beautiful women. I get around them and my thinking gets kind of muddled. My ex-wife was a real stunner. Still is. I fell for her hard. It didn’t work out, but I got a pretty neat kid out of it. And you. Well, you’re even better looking in person than on television.”

“Thank you, I guess, but I don’t see —”

“I’d like to say that when you told me you wanted to do an exclusive interview with me I was pretty charmed. If I didn’t have my mind on other things, I’m sure I’d have been very flattered. But then I thought, no, George. Women like that aren’t interested in men like you. But it was good. But what was even more impressive is that you brought up Aaron’s call to you before I did. Now that was clever. I told you I had a record of Johnny’s calling you and your call to him. And then you got ahead of me. You said to yourself, ‘If he has Johnny’s phone records, he has Aaron’s too.’ So you brought it up first. If you hadn’t, I might have caught you in a lie and then paid a little more attention to you.”

Beth Tanner smiled at the policeman. “This is all very cute, but —”

“No, let me finish. After all, this is what you said you wanted. Let’s talk about a few things. Carter Avery.”

“What about him?”

“What did he do to you?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. He used to be my co-anchor.”

“How come he left?”

“He got another job. He went to Texas.”

“Yes, he did. But he wasn’t there long before he committed suicide. Do you know why?”

“I haven’t the slightest idea.”

“Well, I don’t have to prove motive. Not where Carter Avery is concerned, anyway. I don’t know why you wanted to get rid of him. But you did. Maybe he was a pretty talented anchor. Maybe you were threatened by him. Or maybe you just didn’t like sharing the anchor desk with him. But you knew he was a closeted homosexual and you knew you didn’t want him around. So you hooked up with Johnny Rodgers and paid him to seduce Carter. And you paid him to film their little session. You know, that video is time and date stamped? It was made before Carter Avery killed himself, obviously. But more important, it was made before he resigned from this station.”

A silence between them. Hastings let it happen.

Then he said, “How did Carter react when you showed him that video? Did he break down? Cry? Maybe beg you for sympathy?”

“It never happened. Carter Avery shot himself in Dallas.”

“You’re right. He did. You didn’t pull the trigger yourself, but you pushed him in that direction. Legally, you’re off the hook for that one.”

“But you seem to think I killed Johnny.”

“Oh, I know you killed him. I know you killed Aaron too. If you want to make a confession later, you can. Maybe it would be better for you if you did, though you’d probably better discuss that with your lawyer. But we’ve got you with or without a confession.”

Hastings opened his briefcase. He took out a piece of paper and set it on her desk.

“That’s a copy of a search warrant. We searched your house while you were here.”

She stared at the warrant, the hard truth beginning to dawn on her.

“You can’t do that,” she said. “Not while I’m not there.”

“Actually, we can. If we have a warrant, the subject need not be present while we conduct our search. If you don’t believe me, ask your lawyer. Or any convicted drug dealer. So we found a pair of tennis shoes that match a footprint we found near the river. And we found Johnny’s computer. You know, you really should have gotten rid of that. And we found this.”

Hastings put a gun in a plastic bag on the desk.

“This is the gun you used to kill the young African-American males the night you dumped Aaron’s body in the river. Thirty-eight rounds. The same caliber that was used to kill those guys in south city.” Hastings shrugged. “You can probably plead self-defense on those two, which would bother me not at all, but it does put you near the river that night. Which is all I’m interested in.”

“Gee, you found a gun. I’ll bet there are only about ten thousand of them in north St. Louis alone.”

“Good point. But this one’s yours. This one belongs to Bullet Beth Tanner.”

She stared at him.

“Yeah, I found about that. I spent most of today researching your illustrious career, your background. I was on the phone for hours. Now I called the first station you worked at. That’s what they called you in Little Rock. Bullet Beth. I guess because you were good at producing stories quickly. Did you come up with that name yourself? It’s very catchy.”

Beth started to answer. She was used to talking about herself and was comfortable doing it. But now she hesitated.

Hastings said, “We found a note in Johnny’s car, saying he was supposed to meet B.B. at the lake. Bullet Beth’s initials. You told him about that, didn’t you? You told him about the nickname you’re rather proud of.”

“You need to leave.”

“Soon. We’re both leaving soon.” Hastings said, “Another thing I found is that you were on your college swim team. A champion swimmer. Also, that you bought your house through Jack Belmont’s real estate company. The house with that lovely pool you drowned Aaron Peterson in. Did you have some sort of relationship with Mr. Belmont?”

“That’s none of your damn business.”

“You know what’s funny? That was exactly what Mr. Belmont said to me when I went to see him today. He tried to get a little tough with me. But then I reminded him that he had lied to me when I asked him before if anyone other than his wife or family had access to his house at Lake of the Ozarks. I told him that lying to a police officer is a felony. He cooperated with me after that. He said that you broke it off with him over a year ago. And that he didn’t remember getting the key back to his lakehouse.”

“He’s a liar.”

“Ms. Tanner, why would he lie about something like that? A man who doesn’t want his wife to leave him. Why would he lie to me about an adulterous affair?”

“He’s not the only man who wishes he could have someone like me.”

“Well, you’re probably right about that.” Hastings put the gun and copy of the search warrant back in his briefcase. He stood up.

“Let’s go.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you. I’m calling a lawyer.”

“You can do that after you’re booked downtown. Now I’ve got a couple of uniformed officers in the parking lot waiting. They have a warrant for your arrest. They’re going to arrest you and read you your rights. So you can walk out with me or I can bring them in here so everybody gets to see you in handcuffs. But either way, you’re coming with us.”

A long silence passed.

She said, “Are there cameras out there? What I mean is, did you contact other media?”

Hastings almost laughed. Christ, she was serious.

“That’s not my style,” he said.

Beth stood up and put her jacket on. She gave him a very cold, very ugly look as she walked past him.

“You fucking loser,” she said. “You’re going to regret this.”

“Ms. Tanner, I’ve heard it all before.”

In the parking lot, Hastings and Klosterman stood by the Jaguar watching the uniformed officers put her in the back of a patrol car.

Klosterman said, “She’s a cold one.”

“Yeah,” Hastings said. “You know, it’s funny. I think she was mad at me for not having the media here.”

“Well,” Klosterman said, “that’s show business.”