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Stubbs slapped the barrel of his gun across the side of Morgan&039;s head Little fireworks went off behind Morgan&039;s eyes Bells Morgan felt soan was dizzy, couldn&039;t get his bearings He lost track of Stubbs, allowed hied his eance Morgan felt his wrists being bound together Soed into the bedrooet one eye open, the other caked closed with blood He tried to twist around, see what Stubbs was doing

Morgan felt himself lifted by his wrists He was half on his bed, half on the floor The cord holding his wrists had been lashed to the bedpost Stubbs&039;s footsteps retreated into the next rooan his gruesome story

"After I sawed off my hand," Stubbs said, "I think I was in some kind of shock The memory is a bit hazy, but I think I climbed out of the Mercedes" Stubbs voice was closer now "I threw up too My gut was tossing pretty bad Like I said, shock Also, I sed about a gallon of salt water"

Morgan sarette

"Anyway, I wasn&039;t ood to sith only the one hand I couldn&039;t work against the tide I floated along even with the shore for a while until an felt the white-hot cigarette butt grind into his left ass cheek He screamed, tried to twist away, but Stubbs held it in place Finally, he let go

Stubbs flicked the butt away "Look at that My cigarette went out for soht another"

The burn throbbed, an nauseous with fear and pain

"I had to tie a tourniquet with s slon, I&039;ll tell you how I cauterized the wound By the way, as if you couldn&039;t guess, yes it was pretty goddaan realized with cold dread that this was only the beginning Stubbs had nursed his hatred since Houston and wouldn&039;t be satisfied until Morgan suffered every possible agony Stubbs&039;s warped s with air, screamed as loud as he could "Help! Help! Police! Call the-"

Stubbs&039;s body crushed against Morgan&039;s Stubbs forced the professor&039;s face into the an twice more with the butt of the automatic pistol

"No, no That&039;s not hoe do this" Stubbs&039;s breath was hot on Morgan&039;s ear "I knohat you think Maybe the police will hear or maybe not, but anyway maybe I&039;ll panic and kill you quick and clean No way I got plans for you You&039;re going to beg for a quick death before this is over And, buddy, just screa to hear you over that blizzard out there"

Morgan only half heard, was only half-conscious Black spots claimed his vision He didn&039;t think he could take any more blows to the head Maybe that was better anyway than being awake for Stubbs&039;s torture session

"Session," Morgan said out loud

"What?" Stubbs lifted Morgan&039;s head off the , Professor?"

Morgan wasn&039;t paying attention He&039;d stepped one foot into a dreao and Lancaster in his writing workshop Was this what they an was disappointed

"Disappointed," an

"What?" Stubbs frowned "Dao out on me I need you awake for the fun"

And this Harold Jenks son of a bitch, thought Morgan This is all his fault, getting hts and cocaine

"Cocaine," Morgan said

Stubbs shook Morgan, slapped hihtly on the face "Coan didn&039;t ain "The cocaine, Professor?"

"What?" Morgan&039;s good eye flickered open

"Don&039;t play du about the cocaine Where is it?"

"I don&039;t knohat the hell you&039;re talking about," Morgan said

"Did I s up your ass?" Stubbs said "Now start talking, goddaan forced hio if I show you where the drugs are?"

Stubbs laughed, a sick wheezing sound "Hell, no But I promise not to do all that sick shit Shohere you&039;ve stashed the coke and I&039;ll kill you clean No pain"

"Untie an said

"Fuck you"

"Untie an said "I don&039;t like being bent over like this You&039;ll do soh shit"

"Untie me"

"Oh, for Christ&039;s sake," Stubbs said

He unlashed the cord froan&039;s wrists bound As Stubbs did this, Morgan turned his head, saw that Stubbs had stuck the gun under his other aran saas probably his only chance He wanted to hit Stubbs in the face, et past hian would even run out into the blizzard naked, an lurched to his feet and lunged, swinging two-handed at Stubbs

Stubbs sidestepped easily, popped Morgan in the nose with a right cross Morgan felt cartilage snap, felt warhed, took the pistol from his armpit, and dropped it into his coat pocket "What? You think since I got only one hand, I can&039;t take a pussy like you?"

Morgan rolled onto his stomach, tried to crawl under the bed

Stubbs shook his head "Now that&039;s just pathetic"

Morgan got halfway under the bed Stubbs bent over, grabbed Morgan&039;s ankle, and pulled hiot to do this the hard way now Doesn&039;t bother an had rolled onto his back, Fred Jones&039;s little revolver in a two-handed grip held out in front of him Stubbs fuan squeezed the trigger

The first shot was unsteady, shredded Stubbs&039;s groin The private eye went down, his one good hand clutching his balls, blood pooling Morgan pulled the trigger again, blasted a hole in his bedrooht Stubbs in the top of the head, sprayed bone and brain

Morgan dropped the gun, crawled away froet up, but nothing happened

Morgan li hi, ribs screa with every breath

He found a kitchen knife, sawed the cords aardly until he was free

Morgan went into the bedroom one more time Looked at Stubbs to make sure he was still dead He looked at his bedrooun on the floor, the one Jones had given to hio It seemed like forever

Then he picked up the phone, dialed

"Bob," Morgan said "Is he still awake? Okay, put him on" A pause "Mr Jones? I know it&039;s late, and it&039;s been a long day But there&039;s just one more loose end I need you to help ue

Most of the students and faculty at Eastern Oklaholad it was the end of the ses and faan, it only meant unemploy Otherwise, it was adjunct hell at so hiet his next job seemed like small potatoes His capacity to fret had been exhausted The uncertain future stretching out before him was a parole fro a success (it received glowing reviews in the Tulsa and Fayetteville newspapers), Morgan was not immediately fired, and his contract was allowed to run its course until the sehired in a perenerally understood that Morgan would ood luck, and don&039;t let the door smack your ass on the way out

His office in Albatross Hall was almost cleaned out He filled a cardboard box with books and file folders but paused over the newspaper clippings They were yellow at the edges In the weeks following the Albatross Hall slaughter, Morgan had collected the clippings obsessively They seemed to chronicle an episode in his life that had refused to end Every other day a new article

Some he liked better than others The article about thenaked with cuts all over his face seean had suspicions

But the one about the drug raid at a local farmhouse was clearly the result of Fred Jones&039;sto the article, authorities had pieced together the following story after finding the bodies of Annie Walsh, Deke Stubbs, and Moses Duncan Local drug dealer Moses Duncan had hidden the body of the Walsh girl after she&039;d overdosed on some of Duncan&039;s merchandise She was found buried under the house Tulsa private investigator Deke Stubbs, hired by Walsh&039;s parents, had apparently tracked the girl to the farmhouse Evidence at the crime scene supported the theory that Duncan and Stubbs had killed one another

Several gruesoan tried to laugh about this but couldn&039;t The officer in charge of the case, a Sergeant Hightower, pro until authorities were satisfied

The article also quoted Annie Walsh&039;s parents, who expressed relief that the uilt and regret He tore up the clippings and threw them into the basket next to his desk

But he kept the postcard from Harold Jenks It had arrived teeks earlier and been addressed to Morgan, Valentine, and Jones It said he was doing fine and thanks for everything It also said he wasn&039;t sure what he was going to do next, but don&039;t worry it would be soan read the postcard carefully, he thought he could just barely detect an apology Or

He also kept the letter he&039;d received three days ago froan had written about san had tried to call Jones to tell him about it, but the nuan had found a note froovernment friends" had been upset Jones&039;s picture had been in the paper the day after the poetry reading Evidently that was a no-no, and Jones had been "relocated"

It an sadder than he&039;d anticipated He missed the old an&039;s office without knocking "Hey, hey, Morgo- ie," Jakes said "The insurance check finally caht this sweet Lexus Did I mention they found a severed hand in the back of the Mercedes?"

"It&039;s a crazy world," Morgan said

"Cops sayritual"

Annette Grayson walked in, put her hand on Jakes&039;s ar me to lunch, remember?"

"Sure, babe Just let an "See you later, Jay" There was a an didn&039;t understand, but he suspected it was supposed to be some kind of joke on him

After Grayson left, Jakes said, "Just between you andher for three weeks Yeah!" Jakes ue out "I&039;ine"

"Listen, don&039;t sneak out of town until we can grab a beer, okay?"

"Right," Morgan said

Jakes waved and was gone

Morgan took his last box of personal belongings out to the car and drove hoone, even Valentine had found a new place to hide Morgan would leave Fuer

But he s for him on his porch A week after the blizzard, Ginny had shown up drunk and lonely They&039;d fucked for five hours The next day she&039;d said it was a mistake, and four days after that they spent a weekend in Dallas Once Morgan had the pattern down, she&039;d been easy to cope with

He stopped in front of her on the porch "Hey"

The weather had turned warreen tank top and denim shorts "Hey, yourself All packed?"

"Almost"

She took his hand, stood, brushed off the bottom of her shorts "Did you pack up the bed?"

"Not yet"

"I thought I&039;d stop and say good-bye," she said "You know"

"I know"

"But you&039;re leaving town, so, you know, it doesn&039;t h the front door, past the taped-up boxes and into the bedroo, right?"

"Right"

She tugged his pants down He lifted her tank top, cupped her breast

She sank into him, said, "So this is it for us?"

"Yes The absolute end" He lifted her chin, kissed her deeply and long