Page 40 (1/2)

"It’s sad," Laymon murmured "The aunt--Eileen Brideswell--she’s a ine she’s a major contributor toback, crossing his are woman, Eileen She still loves all theGenevieve O’Brien’s grandfather was a tough old hickory stick He wouldn’t have approved much of Genevieve He didn’t feel that a bum in the street--or a prostitute--should ever be helped with a red cent He gave to charities, all right, but he picked theive a di theone, or else I’d say there was a good chance he’d walled his own niece up so dead, as you say," Joe said

Layirl now and then She loved to come and look at the house"

"She appreciated history?" Brad said

"I guess But it was strange She’d walk around and around it It was as if…it was as if she wasn’t looking at the house, exactly, but at soala?" Joe asked "I mean, you knew her, knew she was interested in the place You could have given her an invitation"

"It never occurred to"All she had to do was ask her aunt if she wanted to go"

But she wouldn’t have done that, Joe thought

"You don’t think Genevieve O’Brien blew the place up out of some kind of bitterness, do you?" Brad asked

"No," Joe said

"Then she ued her," Leslie mused

"Suspected, anyway," Joe said

"Don’t you think this is all getting a bit farfetched?" Layo" He looked at Joe "Genevieve has been reed

"Well, then, at least you can be pretty sure that no one was trying to blow her up," Laymon said cheerfully "She disappearedat hi a lot of the truth of theup hookers, and Genevieve just wound up in the uy, maybe they won’t Sad, but that’s the way it is"

Joe shook his head, staring at Laymon "That’s the way it can be, but not this ti down"

Dinner had ended Laymon offered to pick up the tab, and Joe let hi back Leslie’s chair for her "I’ll see you home" He forced hi in his eyes "And I’ll be on guard All through the night"

Leslie felt guilty Horribly guilty

Joe would sit in his car all night again She knew it

But she just couldn’t ask hiht Not yet

She tried to talk hi ho, when Hastings House was filled with people, when the bones in the baseently removed--when she wouldn’t be alone with anyone He ht she should have the decency to suggest that he sleep in the house, he didn’t say so It wasn’t that there wasn’t so about him, his touch, his scent, the sound of his voice

There were just…things that needed to be solved Leslie couldn’t begin to voice as going on in her heart and rateful that he didn’t seem to expect her to

Before he left her to return to his car, however, he asked her to look around for the list that Greta was supposed to have sent over that day She found it on the kitchen counter and gave it to him He told her not only to key in the alarm, but to lock her bedroom door, as well

At the very least, she could do that for him Upstairs, she locked herself in her bedroo for so to see Matt…

As she saw so many others

But he didn’t appear

Not until she drea her In her drearave Only the slightest hint of a rueful sers around hers

"You were there, in the subway," she told hiave th I needed to move, to save myself And both of you were pretty fierce in that baseers "I keep trying… I guess it takes time and practice, and then…maybe the heart or the soul or essence or whatever we are… that have life of a sort I can only find anything real in me when it comes to you, when I’m afraid for you Leslie, I really want you to leave this house"

"I will Soon"

His sht You are a little liar"