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As a thirteen-year-old boy, I had been able to look into the crematorium Yet all these years later, I still wasn’t ready to watch the gri the dining rooain, she failed to respond

I wouldn’t call her a third time If indeed an intruder was in the house, I would only be revealingroom, I didn’t pause to switch off the la in the stinging rain of foyer light, I glanced through the open door to the study No one was in there

The powder-room door was ajar I pushed it all the way open I didn’t need to turn on a light to see that no one was in there, either

Feeling naed without my cap, which I had left on the kitchen table, I switched off the ceiling fixture in the foyer Blessed gloo where the shadowy stairs turned back and disappeared overhead As far as I could tell, no lights were lit on the upper floor--which was fine with e

The cellular phone was clipped tothe police

After , however, Lewis Stevensonfor me If so, then the chief himself would answer this call Maybe the baldfor the ride

Manuel Ramirez couldn’t assist , restricted to the station I didn’t feel safe asking for any other officer As far as I knew, Chief Stevenson ht Bay; perhaps every member of the force, except Manuel, was involved in this conspiracy In fact, in spite of our friendship, I couldn’t trust Manuel, either, not until I knew a lot ripped the Glock with both hands, ready to press the laser-sighting switch if so hero ela by ht was darker than the lower No ah I ascended quickly and silently

My heart was doingnicely, but I was surprised that it wasn’t racing Only yesterday, I could not have iined that I would be able to adapt so rapidly to the prospect of inize within er

Four doors opened off the upstairs hall Three were closed The fourth--the door farthest from the stairs--was ajar, and fro the three closed roo that they were deserted I would be leaving my back vulnerable

Givenhow quickly ht, I’d be able to search those spaces only with the pistol in ht in erous Each time I stepped into a room, no ht would instantly pinpoint my location for any would-be assailant before I found him with the narrow beaths, whichsideways along the hall, keeping a watch in both directions, I made no sound, and neither did anyone else in the house

The second door on the left was open only a crack, and the narroedge of light revealed little of the rooun barrel, I pushed the door inward

The aily colored afghan draped one arm of an easy chair, and on the footstool waited a folded newspaper On the bureau, a collection of antique perfulow The bulb was not strong, and the pleated-fabric shade screened ela was nowhere to be seen

A closet door stood open Perhaps Angela had co fro clothes and shoe boxes

The door to the adjacent bathroom was ajar, and the bathroo out, I was a well-lit target

I approached the bathrooap between the door and the jamb When I pushed on the door, it opened without resistance

The slow of the nightstand lamp didn’t illuht frolistered across a red pool on a white tile floor The walls were sprayed with arterial gouts

Angela Ferryman was slumped on the floor, head bent backward over the rim of the toilet bowl Her eyes were as wide, pale, and flat as those of a dead seagull that I had once found on the beach

At a glance, I thought her throat appeared to have been slashed repeatedly with a half-sharp knife I couldn’t bear to look at her too closely or for too long

The s, she had fouled herself A draft bathed me in the stench

A casement as cranked all the way open It wasn’t a typically sh to have provided escape for the killer, who must have been liberally splashed with his victiela had left theopen If there was a first-story porch roof under it, the killer could have entered as well as exited by this route

Orson had not barked--but then this as toward the front of the house, and the dog was at the back

Angela’s hands were at her sides, alan She looked so innocent She looked twelve

All her life, she had given of herself to others Now so, had cruelly taken all that was left

Anguished, shaking uncontrollably, I turned away froela with questions I hadn’t brought her to this hideous end She had called h she had used her car phone, someone had known that she needed to be silenced permanently and quickly Maybe these faceless conspirators decided that her despair erous She had quit her job at the hospital She felt that she had no reason to live And she was terrified of beco to lose, beyond their control They would have killed her even if I had not responded to her call

Nevertheless, I ash in guilt, drowning in cold currents, robbed of breath, and I stood gasping

Nausea followed those currents, rippling like a fat slippery eel throughinto et out of here, yet I couldn’t uilt

My right arht as a pluht, clutched in ed patterns on the wall

I could not think clearly My thoughts rolled thickly, like tangled htstand, the telephone rang