"What should I do with it?"
"Get rid of it, I don't know how. It screams out premeditation." He thought throwing it off a bridge would be smart. He didn't say that aloud, didn't want her repeating those words to the police.
"You could get rid of it for me."
"No thanks, I never saw this gun." He gave the box a symbolic push away with his fingertips. "Why did you phone me? You got me involved in this mess by calling me here and confessing a murder. Now I need help too. What am I supposed to do?"
"I don't know, I was thinking we fit pretty well after the party. You seemed to like me."
"So, you called me over for old times' sake to see if I might want to get involved in a murder?"
"Well, can't you help? Aren't there certain things you're supposed to do in these cases?"
"Yes, get a lawyer."
"Don't know any lawyers. Tammy sort of knows one. She smashed into a couple of parked cars last year. She gave this lawyer a trade, that's what she called it, for helping her out. No, I mean don't we have to do things about the body, the gun, things like that? Should we move him?"
Ray gave her an eye roll. "You've really screwed me up. You're forcing me to call the police."
That seemed to surprise her. "Hey! That's not right. Don't do that. I was in trouble and believed I was calling a friend. I wouldn't have called you, if I thought you were going to turn me in. You're not involved."
Ray sat shaking his head. "I now have criminal knowledge of a murder, and I'm helping you...to some extent. That makes me an accessory after the fact."
"I don't know about that stuff."
"Well the police do. Sorry, you're giving me no choice. As soon as they arrest you, they'll come after me. No question about it. The only action I can take now is to report it before your arrest, before my name comes up. I have to appear open and cooperative."
"You don't like me." She squirmed on the bed and folded her arms across her chest.
He didn't think she understood. "You've a good case of self-defense. You were angry about the guy raping your girlfriend, very understandable. You were so infuriated thinking the bastard might get away with it that you went to his place to tell him off. He had to pay for what he had done. He pulls a gun. Luckily, he's the one that got shot and not you. The defense rests." Again, he had conspired with her by opening his mouth and giving her a feasible script to run with. He could hear her telling the police, "But officer, that's what he told me to say." He was getting in deeper.