Thirteen Diamonds

talking, trying to persuade him. I couldn't tell whether my words were having any effect. When we got to Albert's road he stopped at the intersection. Carol stopped behind him. He got out and walked back to her car. They talked for several minutes.
    Joe returned to my car; I hoped he was going to drive on to the police station, but he turned into Albert's road instead. My heart sank. I twisted around and saw that Carol had also turned into the road but then stopped. She apparently wasn't going to follow us any farther.
    Joe drove around several bends and down a hill until we were out of sight from Carol but still out of sight from Albert's house. As we came around a right-angle turn there were three deer smack in the middle of the road. Joe slammed on the brakes and the car skidded to a stop. The deer regarded us with insouciant stares and didn't move.
    I had previously regarded the proliferation of deer in the area as a nuisance, but not now. Joe impatiently honked the horn, but then quit, apparently fearing that he might attract attention, even out there in the middle of nowhere. I hoped the deer had nothing on their schedules and would remain where they were.
    They started walking slowly down an old path. We watched them for a few seconds and then Joe suddenly started up, turned into the path, which was wide enough for a car, and stopped again. He pushed me forward in my seat and quickly ripped the duct tape off my hands. Then he bent down and took it off my feet.
    “Get out of here,” he said. “Go to the house, but stay off the road until you're near the house. Carol's going to come in a few minutes to make sure you're dead and to pick me up. I didn't dare go to the police station because I was afraid she'd shoot up this car with us in it.”
    “What are you going to do?” I asked.
    “Don't worry about me. I'll drive the car far enough into the woods down this old path so she can't see from here that it hasn't been damaged, and stop it against a tree. Then I'll come back and wait for her. When she gets here I'll act like I've been in an accident. That will be easy; I've been in enough of them.”
    “Be careful,” I said.
    “I will.”
    I opened the car door and laboriously stepped out. I immediately fell on my face; my leg had fallen asleep.
    “Are you all right?” Joe asked.
    “I'm fine,” I said, crawling away from the car. “Go on.”
    I feared that Carol would come and catch us here. Joe reached over and pulled the door shut. Then he drove the car into the woods. I struggled to stand with the help of the nearest tree. My leg prickled and had no strength; I hobbled a few steps and leaned against another tree.
    A fallen tree blocked my path, a remnant of last year's hurricane. the tree was too long to walk around in my present condition. I decided to climb over it. I managed to get one leg over the trunk and I was swinging the other leg over when it caught on a branch and I fell again.
    Pain shot through me. I needed to get up, but when I raised myself to a kneeling position and tried to stand, my gimpy leg collapsed. As I lay there I heard footsteps; Joe was walking fast back toward the road.
    I heard a car coming. It must be Carol. The car stopped a few feet from me. The fallen tree hid me from her view and vice versa. I strained to listen.
    The car door opened and Carol said something that sounded like “Well?”
    Joe said, “It worked slick as grease. Everything's fine. I just hurt my knee a little.”
    “But the car's so far off the road.”
    “It was easier to do it that way. The trees are too close together along here and too close to the road.”
    “You idiot! Nobody's going to believe she drove way in there by accident.”
    “Maybe they will.”
    “Did you take the tape off her?”
    “Of course. Here it is.”
    “I want to see her.”
    Footsteps.
    “We've got to get out of here, Carol. Somebody might come.”
    “I just want to make sure you didn't leave any evidence. If you're hurt, wait here for me.”
    “I swear everything's clean. Let's just go.”
    More footsteps. The two were now on the other side of my tree, both speaking at once.
    Carol said, “Leave me alone, damn it!”
    Joe said, “Wait! Give me the gun. It's over, Carol.”
    Sounds of a scuffle. A gunshot. Another. A masculine groan. Then temporary silence.
    The silence was broken by more footsteps, moving in the direction of my car. Running footsteps. When the sound diminished I realized I had been holding my