”What brings you out here tonight, man? You looking to get high?“

”I came to see you, actually.“

The smile doesn’t waver. ”Yeah?“

”How can he just stop peeing like that?“ asks the girl. ”I couldn’t do that.“

”Go get yourself another drink,“ Marko tells her, never taking his eyes off me.

”I don’t want another drink.“

”Get lost, then. You can take this with you.“

He passes something small to her. Pills, no doubt. ”The rest of you go with her, okay?“

As though materializing out of thin air, three more young men drop to the ground from other limbs and start walking up to the road. Alicia goes with them. The back of one boy’s T-shirt reads, ”KA OLE MISS.“

After they disappear, Marko swings down from his perch. He’s about an inch taller than I, with lanky, muscular arms and a scrawny chest. His mouth is smiling, but it seems separated from his eyes somehow, which are watching me like the eyes of an animal uncertain whether to fight or flee. Maybe it’s the drugs,I think.

”What can I do for you, Mr. Cage?“

”Do you know about the Wilsons?“

The smile disappears. ”Sure. Terrible, yeah?“

”Were you home when the killers got there?“

Marko’s eyes narrow. ”No way. I’d have killed them right back.“

”I found the bodies.“

”I read that in the newspaper.“

I watch him for a while without speaking. The silence doesn’t seem to make him nervous. It’s making me nervous.

”Why are you carrying a gun?“ he asks. ”You scared?“

I guess in Sarajevo you learn to spot weapons pretty quick. ”Things are a little crazy in town just now. I like to know I have options.“

This earns a smile. ”Options…I like that. I like options, too.“

”Who killed the Wilsons, Marko? Who tried to hit you?“

He shrugs. ”Who knows, man? America’s a crazy country.“

Marko’s accent combined with his lanky physique makes me think of Goran Ivanisevic, the Croatian tennis star. Marko is actually handsomer than Ivanisevic, but not quite as wholesome looking.

”Listen, Marko,“ I say in a friendly voice, ”I’m not here to try to hurt you. In fact, if you let me, I can almost certainly help you. I know you’ve opened up some new drug markets with the white fraternities at Ole Miss and LSU. Some other places, too. But now that you’ve done that, you’re expendable.“

”Cyrus seems to think so.“

Honesty. A good start.”Was it Cyrus who hit the Wilsons?“

”Don’t know, man.“

”Or was it the Asians?“

All the levity leaves Marko’s face. ”You know a lot, Mr. Cage. Maybe too much, yeah?“

”I’m not the only one who knows this stuff.“ Low down on Marko’s belly is a mass of white scar tissue shot through with purple. Wade Anders told me Marko had been bayoneted as a child.

Marko sniffs like a fox and looks up toward the road. ”That cop with the mullet knew it. Look what happened to him.“

”I saw the Asians kill him.“

”Maybe the Asians think I’m expendable, too, eh? If they do, I’m dead. If I went back to Croatia, I might get away from them. But I don’t want to go back.“

”Are you coming back to St. Stephen’s?“

”Can’t do it.“

”Don’t you want to graduate?“

Tiny points of light dance in his eyes. ”I want to live more.“

”How can you stay in the U.S. if you don’t graduate and go to college?“

He shrugs. ”I can live anywhere. I’ll just become someone else.“

”Is that how you want to spend your life? As someone else?“

”Might be nice for a while.“

I hold out empty hands and step closer to him. We’re no more than five feet apart. ”I don’t care about the drugs, Marko. I’m here because I want to save my friend. You know who I’m talking about?“

”The doctor. The guy who raped Kate.“

”Why do you say that?“

Marko shrugs again. ”That’s what everybody says. The doctor raped her and then he killed her.“

”Drew wouldn’t do that. He was in love with her.“

This seems to amuse Marko. ”Men kill women they love all the time, no? And vice versa. What you call it here? Crime of passion?“

”Yes. But that’s not what happened to Kate.“

”No?“ He looks confused. ”What happened to her then?“

”I’m trying to find out. I think somebody else raped and killed her. Someone who might not even have meant to kill her. He might only have been trying to keep her quiet. That happens a lot.“

”Why are you telling me this?“

”Before he died, Sonny Cross told me you thought Cyrus had murdered Kate.“

Marko scowls. ”I told that kopile whatever would get his gun out of my mouth. He was bad news, man.“

I feel my hope deflating. ”You lied to Cross?“

”Some lies, some truth.“

”Did you lie about Cyrus being obsessed with Kate?“

”Ha! No way. That nigger wanted that girl bad.“

Marko says ”nigger“ with such an unfamiliar pronunciation that I almost misunderstand the word. ”How do you know that?“

”Every time I saw him, he wanted to know every little thing about her. He tracked her cell phone. All he thought about was her coming to get those pills. It made him forget every other chick, you know? He’d wait the whole fucking month to see her. He thought she was some kind of goddess.“

”And you? Didn’t you want to use the Lorcet to get into Kate’s pants?“

”Sure.“ He laughs. ”Why not? Kate was hot, no doubt about it. No goddess, though. No woman is a goddess. They shit and fart just like we do, even the pretty ones. And they all want the same thing.“

”What’s that?“

”Same thing a man wants! Money and power. And a little sex-maybe.“ He laughs again. ”If sex gets them more money and power!“

Now that I’m face-to-face with Marko, I wonder if he can really help me at all. ”Do you know where Cyrus is now?“

”Hiding out. Like me.“

”What does Cyrus have to be afraid of?“

Marko bares his teeth. ”The yellow men.“

”Do you think he’s close by?“

”He can’t be too far. You can’t leave this business very long. Somebody else come along and take it from you.“

”Did you ever sleep with Kate?“

”I don’t sleep much.“ A smirk.

”Did you fuck her?“

His teeth show again. ”Now you’re into what I like.“

I can see how Kate might be drawn to Marko Bakic. He’s the ultimate bad boy. She already had Drew, the ultimate ”good guy,“ but maybe she felt the need to privately balance the scales. Maybe Marko was the answer to that craving. ”So? Did you screw Kate?“

Marko shakes his head. ”Never got the chance.“

”Will you put your money where your mouth is?“

”What you mean?“

”Will you give me a hair off your head? One hair?“

Instant suspicion. ”What for?“

”A DNA test. You know what that is?“

”Sure. I watch TV.“

”If your DNA doesn’t match the sperm that was found inside Kate, then a lot of your problems with the law will vanish.“

”The cops think I killed Kate?“

”The possibility has been raised,“ I lie.

”I was with Coach Anders, man. You tell them! I got enough problems without this bullshit.“

”One hair from your head would solve this particular problem. If you’re innocent, what do you have to lose?“

Marko shakes his head. ”You just want to save your friend. You can make a test say anything you want.“

I didn’t expect him to give me the hair. There’s no upside for him. I just wanted to read his reaction. He’s watching me with what looks like curiosity. Then suddenly he steps forward, sending my hand into my pocket.

Marko’s pistol is out before I even touch mine, its barrel pointed straight at my chest. Fear turns my bowels liquid.

”Careful,“he says, stepping closer. Then he pulls at his dark hair with his free hand and holds something out to me. ”There you go. Get the police off my back, okay? At least on that shit.“

I take the hair and squeeze it tight in my fist.

”Now, maybe you better go home, Mr. Cage.“