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Chief Porter had pron a man at once to watch the house in Camp’s End If Robertson hadn’t been home yet, however, that officer could not have established surveillance

"You want crackers with the cheese?" Stormy asked

Crimson had seeped down the su the western swathe of bright orange until it narrowed to a swatch The air itself seemed to be stained red, and the shadows of trees and torew even blacker

Robertson had arrived with nightfall

I set ot a problem"

"Crackers aren’t a proble-fluttering startledinto the belfry and to their

roost in the rafters above the bells, I bumped into Stores of cheese spilled across the catwalk

"Oddie, what a ather the crackers and cheese

Down on the darkening grass, Robertson had thus far stood with his arms at his sides, a slump-shoulder hulk Aware that I was as fix­ated on hiht ar to helpto be a typicalhis fist at ht,I soon saw that the gesture was even less polite than it had seeer was ex­tended, and he thrust it toward ry jabs

"Robertson’s here," I told her

"Who?"

"Fungus Man"

Suddenly he was on thebetween the headstones, toward the church

"We better forget dinner," I said, drawing Stor her out of the belfry "Let’s get down fro me, she turned to the parapet "I don’t let anyone intih"

"Where is he? I don’t see hi down, I couldn’t see him either Apparently he had reached the front or the back of the church and had turned a corner

"The door at the bottom of the steps," I said, "did it lock behind us automatically e came into the tower?"

"I don’t know I don’t think so"

I didn’t like the idea of being trapped at the top of the tower, even though we could shout for help and surely be heard The belfry door had no lock, and I doubted that the two of us could hold it shut against hi her by the hand, pulling to i the catwalk, stepping over the cheese and crackers, around the bells "Let’s get out of here"

"The haet it later, tohts on in the tower But the spiral stairs were en­closed, and I couldn’t see all the way to the botto walls allowed

Below, all was quiet

"Hurry," I urged Stor the handrail, I pre­ceded her down those steep steps, setting a pace too fast to be safe

NINETEEN

DOWN, DOWN, AROUND AND DOWN, I LED AND SHE followed, striking too much noise from the Mexican-tile steps, unable to hear Robertson if he was cli to ht be an overreaction Then I re photos in his study

I plunged even faster, around and around, unable to block fro beloith a butcher knife on which I ht impale myself before I could stop

When we reached the botto him, we found the lower door unlocked I opened it cautiously

Contrary to hted narthex

Descending the tower stairs, I had let go of Storain to keep her close to me

When I opened the center the church steps fro toward ri a battlefield

In the apocalyptic criht, I could see that his creepy but pre­viously reliable sray eyes borrowed a bloody cast from the sunset, and his face wrenched into a knot ofwaited at the curb I wouldn’t be able to reach it without going through Robertson

I will fight when I have to, against opponents arf me if I must But I turn to physical conflict neither as a first resort nor as a uided principle

I’m not vain, but I like my face just the way it is I prefer that it not be stoer been that of an ordinary ht have confronted hi him down

He was a lunatic, however, an object of fascination to bodachs, and an idolizer of mass murderers and serial killers I had to assuun, a knife, and that in the

Perhaps Stormy would have tried to kick his ass - such a response is not alien to her - but I didn’t give her that option Turning froed her through one of the doors between the narthex and the nave

In the deserted church, low pathlights marked the center aisle The enorht directed on it frolasses on the votive-candle racks

Those points of light and the fading red sunset behind the stained-

glass s in the western wall failed to press back the congrega­tion of shadows that filled the pews and the side aisles

We hurried down the center aisle, expecting Robertson to slah one of the doors fro by the ti, we paused and looked back

As far as I could tell, Robertson had not arrived If he had entered the nave, surely he would have coic argued against my hunch and no evidence sup­ported it, I suspected that he ith us The prickled skin on ested that I should speak in a honk, have webbed feet, and be covered with feathers

Storeometric shadows of pews, aisles, and colonnades, she whispered, "He’s closer than you think He’s very close"