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Kathy said, "I’ll show you"

In the living room, a computer stood on a corner desk White letters on a field of blue offered a peculiar farewell:

Killed what I wanted Took what I needed Now I leave when I want, hoant, and go where I want--one level below Hell

"The taunting tone is typical for a sociopath," Kathy said "The suggestion that he’s earned a princely place in Hell isn’t unique, either, but usually if he’s playing out a satanic fantasy, you find occult literature, posters We haven’t co, chilled by a sense of deja vu, of having seen thisthe words twice, three tilove froht hand, and then keyed in a print request

"There was a time," Kathy said, "if a suicide note wasn’t handwritten, it was suspicious But these days, they often use their computers In some cases they e- the impatiently for the printer to produce a hard copy, Carson said, "Down there in the alley, is there enough left of his face to get a good photograph?"

"No," Kathy said "But his bedroohtstands and on the dresser were a dozen or laraphers, each in an expensive, orna in self-esteem," Kathy said drily

CHA PTER 59 JENNA PARKER, TWENTY-FIVE, lived for parties She see, she obviously had taken a few pre-party toots of soht bash, for she was buzzed when she ca tunelessly With or without drugs, Jenna was perpetually happy, walking on sunshine even when the day offered only rain

On this rainless night, she seemed to float a quarter inch off the floor as she tried to lock her door The proper relationship of a key to a keyhole seeled when, three times in a row, she failed the simple insertion test

Maybe she wasn’t

She succeeded on the fourth try, and the dead-bolt snapped shut with a solid clack

"Sheryl Crowe," Jonathan Harker said from the doorway of his apartment, across the hall from hers She turned, saw hirin "Johnny!"

"You sound like Sheryl Crohen you sing" "Do I really?" "Would I lie?"

"Depends on what you want," she said coyly "Now, Jen, have I ever come on to you?" "No But you will" "When will I?" "Later Sooner Maybe now" She’d been to his apartment a couple times for pasta dinners, and he’d been to her place for take- out, since she didn’t cook even pasta These had been strictly neighborly occasions

He didn’t want sex from Jenna Parker He wanted to learn from her the secret of happiness

"I told you--it’s just you reht"

"Anyway, I’h to be your father"

"When has that ever mattered to a man?"

"We aren’t all swine," he said

"Oh Sorry, Johnny Jeez, I didn’t h inside that I’m not always down there where the words cos, anyway? You’re happy when you’re sober "You’re always happy"

She grinned, caht I love life I’m always happy But it’s no crime to want to be even happier now and then"

"Actually," he said, "if I were in Vice instead of Homicide, maybe I’d have to consider it a crime"

"You’d never arrest me, Johnny Probably not even if I killed soreed, and squirted her in the asp of surprise did what a blow across the backs of her knees would have done: dropped her to the floor She sputtered, wheezed, and passed out

He had taken the squeeze bottle from Roy Pribeaux’s apartment It was one of three he had found there

Later he would leave it with her dead body Her remains wouldn’t be found for months, so their condition wouldn’t enable CSI to date her death after Pribeaux’s The bottle would be one of several pieces of evidence identifying her as his final victim

Now Jonathan lifted her effortlessly, carried her into his apartment, and kicked the door shut behind them

Of the four apartments here on the fourth floor, one stood vacant Paul Miller, in 4-C, ay at a sales conference in Dallas Only Jonathan and Jenna were in residence No one could have witnessed the assault and abduction

Jenna wouldn’t be missed for a day or two By then, he would have opened her top to botto that she had and that he was , and would have disposed of her re all these precautions not because he feared going to prison but because he feared that Father would identify hiade

In his bedroom, Jonathan had pushed the bed into a corner He had stacked the other furniture atop it to create sufficient space for the makeshift autopsy table that he had prepared for her

Plastic sheeting covered the floor At the head and foot of the table stood lah to reveal the source of her happiness whether it was nestled in a tangle of guts or e her on the table, he noticed that she was bleeding froainst the floor when she had fallen The bleeding wasn’t serious The nose injury wasn’t ould kill her

Jonathan checked her pulse Steady

He was relieved He’d been concerned that she had inhaled too much chloroform, that maybe she’d suffered chemical suffocation or anaphylactic shock

He wanted her to be alive through this procedure For some of it, he needed her to be awake and responsive

CHAPTER 60

IN THE BASEMENT of Mercy, hiding behind a row of file cabinets, Randal Six hears noise from beyond the walls of his world: first, the hollow sound of a door falling shut in another roo to be lost in his autish the outer door of this chamber Now, after a late dinner, as he often does, Father h the night

Crouched at the end of the cabinet row, Randal cocks his head and listens intently After aentered in an electric-lock keypad on the far side of the outer file-rooh nine--on telephone, security-system, electric-lock, and other keypads are universal They do not vary from one manufacturer to another

He learned this from an educational web site est co downloaded these tones in preparation for this odyssey, he has replayed thely identify any code by the tones that comprise it

Because the file-room door intervenes, the tones areof the New Race, Randal ht not be able to identify the code: 368284

A soft burrrrr indicates that the circuit engaging the lock has been broken

Although the door is not in Randal’s line of sight, the creak of hinges suggests that Father has opened it Footsteps on vinyl tile reveal that Father has entered the file room

Out of view of the ree, if any, Father’s senses ht have been enhanced--and he holds his breath lest the faintest exhalation reveal his presence

Without hesitation, Father’s footsteps cross the room

The outer door falls shut behind hied lock is cut short by the hard snap of the bolt