The killing of Everett Dynes

The killing of Everett Dynes is a planned murder that turns into a prolonged vehicle attack when Burke Devore finds his intended victim already leaving a diner. In the rain-darkened streets of Lichgate, Burke abandons the shooting he had prepared and uses his Voyager to strike Dynes, then reverses and drives over him again. The violence unfolds through successive attempts to make the injured man stop moving; afterward, Burke leaves the scene weeping, with the Luger pistol still in his pocket.

The Plan and the Changed Circumstances

Near midnight, Burke drives north toward Lichgate through steady, heavy rain. At the traffic light on Nether Street, he sees that the gas station is closed but the diner is open. Across the intersection, Everett Dynes is already walking away from it, shoulders hunched against the weather, wearing a windbreaker and cloth cap. Burke has arrived on time for his plan, but Dynes has left early.

Burke had intended to switch off his headlights in the diner parking lot, wait near its entrance, and shoot Dynes with the Luger pistol as he came down the brick steps. The plan depended on meeting Dynes at the diner, where Burke could approach from his vehicle and fire through the open window. Now Dynes is already across the intersection, walking briskly along Nether Street toward home, which is three blocks away. Burke is still stopped at a red light, and the distance and movement of his target make the intended shot difficult.

He switches off the headlights and turns left when the light changes. Dynes is on the other side of the street, moving past parked cars in the rain; Burke judges that a shot from the driver's seat would be difficult and risks missing, alerting Dynes, or giving him the chance to escape and call the local police. When Dynes briefly glances over his shoulder and then crosses the street at an angle, Burke decides to accelerate instead. The change is not a retreat from the intention to kill, but a change in method prompted by the conditions on the street.

The First Impact

The Voyager surges forward toward Dynes, who appears to Burke as a dark shape against the night. Dynes senses the car and looks over his shoulder. As the vehicle bears down on him, he jumps toward the left curb. His upward motion carries him onto the front of the car rather than beneath it: he strikes against it in front of the windshield. Burke brakes, and Dynes slides down the vehicle's front, reaching for a hold that is not there. The car is still moving, however, and passes over him with heavy bumps.

Burke stops, turns on the headlights, and shifts into reverse. He sees Dynes in the vehicle's three mirrors, and the view changes the immediate problem: Dynes is still moving and trying to rise. Burke accelerates backward with his eyes closed. He feels the car go over Dynes again, brakes hard, and worries that he will hit a parked car, but avoids doing so. The sequence makes the attack both deliberate and unstable: Burke uses the car as a weapon, yet the dark street, the moving body, and the parked vehicles shape what happens next.

Repeated Attempts to Stop Him

When Burke opens his eyes, Dynes is in the headlights, crumpled mostly face down on the pavement. One arm moves, his fingers scratch at the ground, and his head twitches. His cloth cap is gone. These details mark the difference between the first collisions and the next decision: Burke can see that Dynes has been badly injured, but can also see that he is not yet still.

Burke shifts into Drive and moves slowly forward, aiming the car at Dynes's head. He feels the front left tire and then the rear left tire pass over it. He stops and shifts into reverse once more. The headlights and backup lights frame the violence as a repeated procedure of moving forward, stopping, and checking: Burke looks into all three mirrors, and this time Dynes does not move. The final stillness is the immediate outcome Burke has been seeking, reached through repeated impacts rather than the planned shot at the diner.

Aftermath and Significance

Burke drives back to the motel weeping. He feels too weak to steer or press the accelerator and brake normally, but he has left the scene in the Voyager. The Luger pistol remains in his pocket, weighing down his right side as he gets out of the car and interfering with his attempt to reach the key to his room. The unused weapon is a concrete remnant of the plan that failed to fit the circumstances; the vehicle, initially his means of reaching the diner, has become the instrument of the killing.

The scene's progression from a carefully imagined shooting to a series of collisions gives the murder a stark, procedural rhythm. Burke repeatedly encounters signs that Dynes is still alive or moving, and each time responds by using the car again. The visible hand, scratching fingers, and twitching head make the victim's bodily presence impossible to mistake, even as Burke's narration repeatedly renders him as a shape in darkness or a body in the car's path. After the final check, Burke's tears and physical weakness register the immediate emotional aftermath, but do not undo the deliberate escalation that has brought Dynes to stillness.