Nevada Barr - The Rope

Anna nodded. This was all blood under the bridge. Regis had set his wife’s murder up by giving her the knife, but Bethy Candor needed to be killed. In Anna’s conscience it was a wash.

“Wanting to keep it quiet that your wife’s crazy isn’t against the law,” Steve said, sounding tired and a little defensive.

“Wasn’t there a money thing?” Jenny asked. She had not been as sanguine as Anna about letting over be over. The tale of Anna’s cliff-top adventures had thrown her into a fit of growling and hissing that lasted a couple of days.

“Yeah. We talked with Regis’s grandfather and his mom. The dad is dead, heart attack at forty-one. Granddad didn’t give numbers, but it sounded like there was a lot of money in a trust fund. Regis was to come into it at thirty, but only if he had a job and a solid marriage. The old man is big on proving responsibility, gave me quite a lecture on earning money before you’re allowed to spend it. Regis had the job; he needed the solid marriage. Not exactly a motive for killing his wife.”

“Better a heroic widower than the husband of a murdering psychopath,” Jenny grumbled.

“Anywho,” Steve sighed, putting an end to the discussion of all the bad things he could do nothing about, “I’ve got the two of you scheduled for critical incident stress counseling—”

“No!” Jenny and Anna said simultaneously.

“Hey, don’t bite my head off. New regulations. Something bad goes down, we all have to go in for group hugs,” Steve said.

“Have to?” Anna asked. Molly was all the psychiatrist she needed. The thought of telling some fool who didn’t know her from Adam, knew nothing of where she’d been or what she’d done, exhausted and annoyed her.

“I won’t do it,” Jenny said flatly.

Steve leaned back in his chair, the spring groaning pathetically. “I’d recommend it,” he said. “It’s free, and you bottle this stuff up, you’ll be old and fat and tired like me in a few years.”

“Are you going?” Anna asked him.

There was a moment of silence. Steve creaked forward and rested his forearms on the desk. “I’ve got firearms qualifications all that week,” he said.

“Bummer,” Anna said with a smile. “I’ve got to wash my hair.”

“I’ve got to help her,” Jenny said. “Anna has a lot of hair.” Reaching up, she snagged Steve’s—OLD SCHOOL cap from the filing cabinet and put it on.

“Suit yourselves,” he said. “Can’t say I didn’t try. Anna, you’ve had a hell of a season so far, and you’ve got four more weeks before it’s officially over. No one would think less of you if you wanted to leave before that. If you want to come back here—or any other park, for that matter—as a seasonal interpreter I’ll make sure it won’t count against you. That’s a promise.”

Anna thought about the offer.

“I don’t want to come back as a seasonal interpreter,” Anna said finally. Jenny looked crestfallen.

“I don’t blame you for that,” Steve said. “Let me know when you’d like your last day to be and I’ll get to work on the paperwork.”

“No, I’m staying,” Anna said. “I want to come back in law enforcement. I believe more women should carry guns. I believe armed women will make the world a better place. Women need to come to think of themselves not as victims but as dangerous.” Realizing she was speaking too vehemently, she forced herself to smile, to lean back.

Steve looked at her for a long moment, his face unreadable. At length, his eyes crinkled at the corners as he said, “Anna Pigeon, you scare the hell out of me just the way you are.”

Anna Pigeon Books

Burn

Borderline

Winter Study

Hard Truth

High Country

Flashback

Hunting Season

Blood Lure

Deep South

Liberty Falling

Blind Descent

Endangered Species

Firestorm

Ill Wind (a.k.a. Mountain of Bones )

A Superior Death

Track of the Cat

Nevada Barr Collection

Bittersweet

13½

Seeking Enlightenment—Hat by Hat

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

THE ROPE. Copyright © 2011 by Nevada Barr. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

www.minotaurbooks.com

www.stmartins.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Barr, Nevada.

The rope : an Anna Pigeon novel / Nevada Barr.—1st ed.

p. cm.

e-ISBN 9781429951135

1. Pigeon, Anna (Fictitious character)—Fiction.

2. Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (Utah and Ariz.)—Fiction.

3. Temporary employees—Fiction. 4. Imprisonment—Fiction.

I. Title.

PS3552.A73184R67 2012

813'.54—dc23 2011035837

First Edition: January 2012

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