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Powell Refer it to Powell

That could well be the answer Geoffrey Powell, who cribbed all irl, too, and lives with her in that big house which should really bemine look like a kennel Yes, I shall refer the -headed, pompous bastard that he is, in his Harley Street consultancy, still he ht answer And if he does, certainly it will have been worth his exorbitant fee

None of which would be necessary if Miles Clayton had gone to Powell in the first place; but he didn&039;t, he came to me He was overdue for a shave, bleary-eyed, and the smell on his breath was probably whisky He didn&039;t reek of drink, no, but he&039;d had a few On the other hand his clothes were of an expensive cut, his car was new and rather superior to ave e, florid ars and dealt in fancy liqueur chocolates which he imported If this rather brief description of hireeable or unpleasant, that is not the impression I wish to convey; on the contrary, he was a very &039;nice&039; man One cannot help one&039;s looks And of course, in his condition, which was other than usual

Anyway, this is the story he told er Wald Been over there for five days, driving myself from venue to venue, and was up in the mountains around Holz in dark chocolate brandies

I had just got used to driving on the right-hand side of the road - or at least I thought I had - when it happened

On the outskirts of a tiny village, where the road swept out of miles of pine forest and down into the harbour of a valley saddled between three hills, suddenly I found ain! It must have been the absence of other vehicles, the repetitious twisting and twining of the road where it followed the contours through the trees, which was almost hypnotic, the sheer loveliness of the scenery all about Anyway, I started to correctaround a bend into a built-up area-I mean, she was just there! Now, I believe that by then I was on the right side of the road again -just the moment before corrected myselfmaybe I was a bit confused, d&039;you see? Whichever, I didn&039;t react fast enough: even as I slammed my brakes on I was into her Bued about on the roof-rack, plopped down on the road behind me By which time I&039;d just about slewed to a halt

I&039;d been well inside the limit - well, just inside it; it hadn&039;t been ht the hell in ht outside the local police station, where as luck would have it an &039;Offizier&039; had just co

After that things happened very quickly I suppose I was very nearly in a state of shock I got out of the car, fell down -1 was shaken, d&039;you see? - got up again and went to where the officer was kneeling beside her On my way I&039;d seen the dent in ht back, a little blood on the roof-rack But oh reat deal irl!

Her dress at the front was torn, red and wet under her left breast, and blood was puht about her being torn by the roof-rack and it rind my teeth She was conscious, but only just

The officer was a good &039;un: cool as a cucumber, efficient as only the Germans can be &039;Go inside,&039; he told me &039;Hold the doors open for ently picked her up I held the doors for him while he carried her inside the police station, into a room where he laid her down on a bed Then he did what he could to staunch her wounds Where her dress was torn I saound which I couldn&039;t believe I - my car - was responsible for It was round and black in its middle, as if a bite had been taken out of her I could see ribs in there Then the officer put a thickly wadded dressing over it

&039;Wait,&039; he told me, &039;and I&039;ll call an aen&039;, but I&039;m quite fluent with Gerlish

Anyway, he left the rooht atat her, and I sa young she was, and how pretty &039;Oh, my God!&039; I said

&039;My God!

She patted my hand I mean, she patted ill &039;It wasn&039;t your fault,&039; she said &039;An accident&039;

&039;Butbut&039; It was all I could say

&039;An accident,&039; she repeated Her blood had seeped right through theon the floor The young policeman was still on the phone

&039;For God&039;s sake hurry up!&039; I called out to hireat deal of pain Her face had twisted up and the dressing had coritted rit hers &039;God! - if there&039;s anything I can do-&039; I said

&039;The devil,&039; she answered ht in the eye &039;Don&039;t ask it of God This isn&039;t His work&039; She was sinking into deliriuon, and-&039;

&039;No,&039; she said, her voice a whisper &039;I can&039;t This is punishment I had forsaken&039;

&039;Yes?&039;

&039;Oh, it doesn&039;t matter It&039;s the end of me, and the end of Uzzi&039;

Uzzi? Her child? A pet cat or dog? &039;Listen,&039; I gabbled desperately &039;While you&039;re recovering, I&039;ll look after Uzzi I&039;ll-&039;

She shook her head, but oh so weakly &039;No,&039; she forced sorimace, on to her face I&039;ll not recover And don&039;tdon&039;t worry aboutabout Uzzi&039;

&039;God!&039; I cried again &039;Don&039;t die, please don&039;t die I&039;ll look after Uzzi I swear it!&039; I hardly knehat I was saying

&039;Swear it?&039; Her eyes had shot wide open She reached out a bloody, tre hand towards my lips, as if to seal themand fell back Her eyes stayed open When the policeman came back into the room he closed them and covered her body with a blanket Covered her face, too

That was the end of it - or should have been

The aave a written statement of what had happened The police and corroborated my statement: it hadn&039;t been ht be an inquest but I wouldn&039;t be required to attend; the evidence of a police witness would suffice I found it all too easy, toosi told -quite literally - to drive on, not to concern myself

&039;But her family&039;

&039;No fae&039;

&039;Relations, friends&039;

He shook his head &039;None&039;

&039;What? A pretty girl like that? I can&039;t believe-&039;

&039;Wait,&039; he said, cutting me short &039;Look, she wasn&039;t an innocent She wasn&039;ta good person&039;

&039;What? Do you mean she was a whore? A criminal, perhaps? But what does that matter? I mean-&039;

&039;Please!&039; he said &039;I knohat you ree, that doesn&039;t matter at all But you are not to blaain&039;

It wasn&039;t until I reached ht that I remembered Uzzi I&039;d sworn to take care of him/her, whatever Uzzi was A pet, I supposed Ah, well - the Germans are a pretty humane lot, in their way Doubtless Uzzi would find a new home In any case, it was out of uilty, maybe I&039;d even be a little relieved that I was out of the affair so light

But I did recall seeing soe Well, perhaps not then, but nificance It hile I aiting for the airl&039;s body away that I noticed a stack of old, browning occurrence books on a shelf behind the duty desk: those great, ledger like diary things in which the officer on duty at the desk keeps his daily log or record The books were old, as I&039;ve said, and the dates on some of their spines went back as far as the mid-1930s, before the war

The spines read: Polizei Hohenstadt, followed by the specific dates when the books were first taken into use, and the dates when they&039;d been completed and closed These particulars ritten in capitals, in heavy black ink, on labels glued to the spines Several of the labels had fallen off, however, and the unfaded spines where they&039;d been bore a uniforend: Polizei Hexenstadt, and then the dates as before So that it seemed fairly obvious to me that at some time in the not too distant past the town had been renamed

The reason I make mention of this is very simple to explain: Hexenstadt means &039;Witch Town&039; This is a fairly trivial fact which, in the circuet

But I haven&039;t been allowed to forget it

Thesweat - I thought it eat - following a night of hideous dreahtmares were for sure, except I believe they went over, tiain, the details of the accident and that look on the girl&039;s face as she died, when I swore I&039;d take care of her Uzzi

My hosts were the manufacturers of those chocolates I mentioned God only knohat they&039;d think of me when I left and they caht there - or soht that / had made the room smell like that

I threw open the s, let in the sweet mountain air, and dumped my bedsheets into a dirty linen basket Pillowcases, too Then I found fresh linen in a drawer and decked the bed, set the rooain

After a shower I felt better, but Iin an aard position or so me to favour that arm and hold it a little tenderly away froard to the condition of :

Please understand, I have always been the most scrupulous ofas I can reht, and often in the s, too It was quite beyond htmare could squeeze juices like those from a man&039;s pores!

Two days later I was on the car ferry out of Bremerhaven and so returned home And no repetition of those terrible dreams until I found o-The saain, but this tiressed, worsened, until finally I&039;ve found myself driven to come and see you Not that I&039;ve told you all of it - not yet - nor even the half of it But God it&039;s so weird, so utterly horrible that-

-That the fact is, I think I&039; my mind!

I&039;ve told you about the &039;sweat&039;, which I thought was mine Well, and at first I did think it - what else was I supposed to think? But as it got worse I knew it couldn&039;t be , healthy creature of God&039;s sweet earth - could possibly exist and have poison like that in him! Well, perhaps there are creatures that could: the octopus,ree, take on a new andfor Part of it was the sensation of having so person or being that snuggled tochild With a child&039;s greed, yes - but without its love or vulnerability And er than any child That was part of it

The other part was

You kno a cat purrs? Well, sohtmares of mine purred But not like a cat

It did express a sort of satisfaction, contentedness, but that here the si, no, it was le word, spoken slaveringly over and over again: Uzzi - Uzzi -Uzzi!

Finally, Mondayreached its peak Or perhaps I should say it reached a peak The drea, war on some slinawing horror of so toto me to numb my mind, anaesthetise !

But when I woke upthe nighter any use kidding myself that thisthis slime eat! No, for it was in fact sli like clear, stinking jelly to my bedsheets - and to me, all down my left side!

What&039;s more, there was a deep slimy depression in the bed to the left of where I&039;d slept: a wet, oval-shaped indentation as if a great cracked egg had lain there all through the night, seeping its fluids into er fool myself but had to ade hurt like hell and felttotally wrong

I showered, carefully exath mirror - and went immediately to seelike this before, except that then I&039;d thought etto wait around until it - whatever &039;it&039; was - had eaten right through to my ribs!

The doctor took samples - blood, urine, tissue - and said he&039;d send the with ot the iht it was a purely physical thing, do you see? And I wasn&039;t about to tell hi with me How could I? How could I explain to hi sore under my armpit? If I&039;d told hi And perhaps it is, which is why I&039;ve coo Since when-

It seemed to me that I must sort out my priorities, take so I must do was catch this beast &039;in the act&039;, as it were At the doctor&039;s (on the pretext that I had a lot of night studying to do) I&039;d got hold of soht I drank a lot of strong, black coffee, put a powerful electric torch underto bed I tried to look at a book but after reading the saave it up as a bad job And at last, at about 1:30,1 turned out the light I wanted it to come, d&039;you see?

I tried to stay awake, but The luminous hands on my alarain, but striving against the lure of its tidesand at the sa bulky, cla its hideous song to keep me asleep: