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"Any ideas?" I asked in a shaky whisper
"Try singing so les hadto the floor weakened row My corner teeth were out, I was in all kinds of pain, hallucinating, and there wasn&039;t a da I could do
Helplessness I&039;d been here before, hanging in aat the foot of Escott&039;s hospital bed while he lay dying
I i to look at me, his face distorted by the bruises I&039;d put there, but still recognizable, wearing a sardonic expression
"You&039;re the strongest man I know," he told e of character I could put up a front, fake a courage I did not possess If soo with a little pride
Howling a fourth chorus, I sounded absolutely insane, even to
"I know you can hear ht"
Thea thumbs-up, and looked across the room
A door opened I couldn&039;t see it but heard the drawing of a bolt and creak of hinges Footsteps on wood stairs, descending, one-two-three-four I counted sixteen steps, storing the information
He crossed into my field of view He was also in a nice suit and also sh that was the natural expression of his pale face It was how hisperpetual amusement He held a45 revolver in one hand and seemed very confident
My short list of suspects failed to include this man The familiarity of a basement prison had been a clue froo I&039;d chained Hurley Gilbert Dugan to a wall in a very sione an s the situation
No reason why I shouldn&039;t as well I began to laugh again The laughter was odd; I&039;d never laughed like that inas well This was goddaan&039;s moment
He er or fear, cursing or begging, but not this His intentional smile soured, replaced by a flash of irritation The man had no sense of hu superior to others and relished a good gloat, but take it away, laugh at hi, but there was little he could do to an found a way to improve on that, well, I&039;d die a little bit quicker
And I would die
I wasn&039;t getting out of this one I saw it in his eyes, knew in my heart that for him it was a practical necessity This here it would happen, no corave
But if there was any way I could take hie, I&039;d killed I was a murderer There were deaths I&039;d caused indirectly and others that ithout question ree or another each had a ed things in a couple cases, but taking a life lessens your own It leaves a wound on your soul that never quite heals
But so Bristow, yeah, I&039;d kill hiust for the act itself, like stepping on a poisonous spider and leaving a an was different I would take a great deal of pleasure in the act of killing hiive hiiven to others As a kid he was probably responsible for at least two deaths: a governess and another kid As an adult he was the brains behind a girl&039;s kidnapping and the murder of a harmless old couple whose isolated farht be more, and I wondered about the fate of the owner of this place Dugan lied,the ht to be inferior specireed with hihted fools he would have culled fro loose in the background, not ih for Bristow to bother with, and witnessed my torture It had made hiet someone else to do the work But he&039;d learned s about me that I didn&039;t want to know myself; for that alone I wanted hiHe wanted to be sure I was safely pinned in place Everything in me wanted to tear loose and rip hiet free by now, then it wasn&039;t going to happen I was just too weak
That was a hell of a lot of frustration, hed in his endlessly shed soently pressed the ainstIf he shot ht do the trick I&039;d be dead without finding out what he wanted, though If he&039;d simply htclub He&039;d gone to a lot of trouble to getat the area where the metal went in It hurt when he did that Froht around thearound a splinter
He abruptly grabbed the handle part of the rod and gave it a full twist all the way around My skin parted froasp When a small portion of the red-hot haze in ain I was alet free
He watched with a calm detachment
Well dressed, well fed, and yes, that co to return But I&039;d seen hi to boost h: this was his show
He reached out ofin He see time with me
God, what had I done to deserve this?
"I&039;ve been following you," he said
No greeting, no preaun hours ago Some people do that, usually the most self-absorbed
"You never once looked over your shoulder You ned to what prothy recitation of his life and hard times since our escape from the meat locker He loved himself more than anyone I&039;d ever
He&039;d taken ten grand frouided lady friend and disappeared hio looking for him on my say-so I&039;d tentatively concluded that he&039;d left the city and hoped he&039;d departed froether
Optianhis little speech for some while-there was a rehearsed quality to it as he told his story I didn&039;t give a tinker&039;s da me from afar Nor could I work up any interest for his account of how he&039;d learned to use firearh
It was clear he cherished the sound of his own voice, and it was a nice voice: educated, articulate He reminded me of Michael that way, but Michael was soht I&039;ve kept a close eye on you, Fle," he said "You never knew"
"You need a better hobby"
"Watching and studying and learning exactly how you waste your abilities"
"Should&039;ve gone to the an was very proud about how he&039;d broken theand gotten into the house He thought himself to be very slick, indeed He&039;d found my basement shelter eventually, for he had reasoned Ilike that
Only ht He&039;d returned during the day, intent on hauling hbor&039;s attic Had I done so again instead of staying at the club, I&039;d still be free
Dugan broke into Cry his tracks better, and scoured it for hidden sanctuaries I&039;d been s such a genius, it was inevitable he would discover it
He&039;d been watching froone to the Stockyards the other night Good thing Kroun hadn&039;t left the car Dugan gave no hint of knowing there was another bloodsucker in town He co blood at a butcher shop, and it was unsettling to learn he&039;d been so close behind How could I have not noticed?
I was sick of him "You want applause? Undothis up I reed ani You couldn&039;t escape because a piece ofThat&039;s fascinating I&039;hted that my experiment to keep you here was so successful"
Some experiment But I had to adan twisted the rod again, so the healing skin parted froht of it and ht
In one of those infrequent flashes that usually occur just a little too late to do any good, I began to get a glimmer of what this was about, and the bottom dropped out of my belly
I could not show fear, hell, I couldn&039;t even tremble I was absolutely petrified
He saw that, and it pleased hi around and behind the head of ht I heard odd noises, a rustle and slither like stiff fabric shifting, a metallic click, his step as he returned
He&039;d put on a butcher&039;s apron It covered the whole of his front
And he&039;d traded the revolver for a scalpel
My thinking he&039;d go one better than Bristow and kill me that much faster I&039;d been crazy Even if death was at the other end, I couldn&039;t go through it again I just couldn&039;t
I closed my eyes In a safe and well-sheltered part of le perfect hour from a perfect summer day I&039;d floated alone in the cool water of a stock tank, master of the world and content In meover ainst as to co my skin off I&039;d done all I could to blot that out, but Dugan brought it hurtling back
Unable to run, I trean to burn
If he wanted
I had no pride, no courage
He owned me