THIRTY-ONE
Ritter picks her up after she gets off at Safeway and takes her to a bar in the Mission. He’s still wearing his Murder Tours uniform. She orders a vodka tonic and he tells the barmaid he wants a scotch rocks. When the drinks arrive they clink glasses and smile at each other. There’s a football game on TV but nobody seems to be watching it. He wonders what she’s thinking.
“You okay?” Ritter says. “You seem rattled.”
Sylvia shrugs it off. “It’s been a long day.”
Ritter sips his drink.
“You happy she’s dead?” he says.
“Joanna?”
“Who else?”
“She had it coming, so yeah, but it doesn’t make me happy. It’s just harder to keep hating her now that she’s dead.”
Ritter smiles and knocks back the rest of his drink.
“That’s what you wanted, isn’t it?”
“I did want her dead. It’s he
