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She threw open the door, swept into the master suite, and was shot four times in the chest by her beloved Maxih as she fell, she realized that he must have shot Rebecca, too

JOCKO, CAPERING IN THE KITCHEN, dropped the apples when the gunfire boootten the knife Victor waited to be killed, and Jocko forgot the knife

He hit himself in the face Hit, hit, hit himself He deserved to be smacked twice as often as he was Three times

One drawer, two drawers, three … In the fifth drawer, knives He selected a big one Very sharp

Tippytoe, tippytoe, out of the kitchen, into the hall

CHAPTER 38

DUKE SLEPT in the backseat of the Honda during the drive east-northeast on I-10 and then west on I-12

The dog’s snoring didn’t induce drowsiness in Carson, though it ought to have, considering how little sack tirabbed in the past couple of days

The half liter of supercaffeinated cola fro the city line, they stopped at a combination service station and convenience store that was open 24/7, where they drained themselves of soht two e of caffeine tablets

As they hit the road again, Michael said, "Too much caffeine ties the prostate in knots"

"I don’t have a prostate"

"Carson, you know, everything isn’t always about you"

One thing keeping her awake and focused was the suspicion that the Helios-Frankenstein case ht be as much about her as it was about anyone Not merely because she happened to be one of the two detectives who stumbled on the case And not because her path crossed Deucalion’s just when she needed to meet him

Of all the cops Carson knew, she and Michael had the deepest respect for individualism, especially when a particular individual was quirky and therefore a Consequently, they were ht have been by the prospect of a civilization with a single-imented population of obedient drones, whether that population was cos or of pseudo-humans cultured in a lab

But her respect for individualism and her love of freedom was not why this case was so powerfully, iation, she began to suspect that her father, who had been a detective with the NOPD, ht have been murdered by the New Race--and her mother with him--at the order of Victor Helios Her dad could have encountered soe that had led hihter would be led to the same suspect years later

Her parents’ murders had never been solved And the evidence concocted to portray her father as a corrupt cop--who ht have been executed by criminal elements hich he was involved--had always been too pat, an insult to coainst the truth of her dad’s character

Over the past few days, her suspicion developed into conviction As er for justice and a determination to clear her father’s nahtless expanse of Pontchartrain lay to their left, and it seeravity of a collapsed star, as if this night the world were rolling along its ri down into oblivion

Except in the headlights, the rain that caainst the driver’s side of the car as they drove west on I-12, as if the night itself had fists of bony knuckles And the wind see down out of a moonless and starless sky

CHAPTER 39

HAVING BELIEVED that Erika Four was bursting in upon hi to stop both of her hearts, before he realized that the intruder was Christine As the designer of her kind, he knew precisely where to aim And because he started the job with such expert marksmanship, he had no choice but to finish it with two h death did not at once take her She spas for breath, futilely pressing her hands to her chest as if shethe wounds fro Christine’s final throes, Erika appeared in the hall, just beyond the open door, and Victor raised the pistol fro housekeeper, to train it on whichever of his Erikas stood before hi with Christine," she said "She didn’t seeht I was someone named Mrs Danvers"

"Do you knoho you are?" Victor asked

She frowned at the muzzle of the pistol and at the question "What do you mean?"

"Who are you!" Victor demanded with such vehemence that she flinched, as if re when she deserved one

"I’m Erika Your wife"

"Erika Five?"

She looked puzzled "Yes, of course"

"Then tellin the world?"

"Books," she said at once "Books corrupt"

Erika Four had been allowed to read, which led to her death Only Erika Five was created with a proscription against reading books A resurrected Erika Four could have no way of knowing this

On the floor, Christine said, "Manderley …" and her eyes glazed over

She appeared to have died Victor kicked her head, testing her response, but she didn’t twitch or make a sound

Beside her on the floor was a book titled Ja the pistol to his shoulder holster, Victor said, "What was the word she just spoke?"

"Manderley," said Erika

"What language is it, what does it lish house, a literary allusion I’ve got it in ht say to someone we visited, ‘Oh, my dear, your house is even more wonderful than Manderley and your housekeeper isn’t insane’"

"Yes, all right, but to ork does it refer?"

"Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca," Erika said, "which I have never read and never will"

"Books again," he fuer this time, he kicked the dead housekeeper, and then the book that had fallen fro this trash to the Hands of Mercy for an autopsy Clean up the blood yourself"

"Yes, Victor"

SKIP, SKIP, HOP Skip, skip, hop Along the south hall Skip, skip, hop Knife in hand

The back stairs Three steps up, one step back Three steps up, one step back

Racing, in his fashion, toward vengeance, Jocko reminded himself of the speech he must make As he drove the blade deep into Victor, he must say: I am the child of he who I was before I was me! I died to birth me! I am a monster, outcast and castaway! Die, Harker, die!

No All wrong So much practice in so ht

Cliain: You are the monster child of he who I!

No, no, no Not even close

I ary with hiain On his feet Two steps up, one step back, spit Two steps up, one step back, spit

Finally he reached the top step, feet glistening

In the second-floor south hall, Jocko stopped to collect his thoughts There was one And here was another And here was a third thought, connected to the other two Very nice