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On this occasion, the doors did not attract me Intuition led me to the stairs, and swiftly up
The dark second-floor hallas brightened only by the pale outfall of light from two rooms
I’ve had no dreams about open doors I went to the first of these tithout hesitation, and stepped into a bedroom
The blood of violence daunts even those with much experience of it The splash, the spray, the drip and drizzle create infinite Rorschach patterns in every one of which the observer reads the saility of his existence, the truth of his mortality
A desperation of crie: Spare e me
On the floor, near the foot of the bed, lay the body of Dr Wilbur Jessup, savagely battered
Even for one who knows that the body is but the vessel and that the spirit is the essence, a brutalized cadaver depresses, offends
This world, which has the potential to be Eden, is instead the hell before Hell In our arrogance, we have made it so
The door to the adjacent bathrooed it with one foot
Although blood-diht reached into the bathroom to reveal no surprises
Aware that this was a cri I stepped cautiously, with respect for evidence
Soreed seldom motivates a killer Most homicide has the same dreary cause: The bloody-minded murder those whom they envy, and for what they covet
That is not edy of human existence: It is also the political history of the world
Common sense, not psychic power, told e that, until recently, Dr Jessup had enjoyed Fourteen years previously, the radiologist had wed Carol Makepeace They had been perfect for each other
Carol cae with a seven-year-old son, Danny Dr Jessup adopted him
Danny had been a friend of mine since ere six, e had discovered acards I traded hi centipede for a Venusian methane slime beast, which bonded us on first encounter and ensured a lifelong brotherly affection
We’ve also been drawn close by the fact that we are different, each in his way, froenesis imperfecta, also called brittle bones
Our lives have been defined--and deformed--by our afflictions My deforely physical
A year ago, Carol had died of cancer Now Dr Jessup was gone, too, and Danny was alone
I left thethe hallway toward the back of the house Passing two closed roo toward the open door that was the second source of light, I worried about leaving unsearched spaces behindtelevision news, I had worried for a while about an asteroid hitting the earth and wiping out human civilization The anchorwoman had said it was not merely possible but probable At the end of the report, she smiled
I worried about that asteroid until I realized I couldn’t do anything to stop it I am not Superrill and griddle
For a longer while, I worried about the TV news lady What kind of person can deliver such terrifying news--and then set skewered through the throat, the iron pike--or whatever--would probably be wielded by that anchorwoht, crossed the threshold No victis orry about the s that bite us The sharpest teeth always take their nip of us e are looking the other way
Unquestionably, this was Danny’s roo a poster of John Merrick, the real-life Elephant Man
Danny had a sense of humor about the deformities--mostly of the li like Merrick, but the Elephant Man was his hero
They exhibited him as a freak
, Danny once explained Woh men flinched He was loathed and reviled Yet a century later a movie was based on his life, and we know his name Who knows the name of the bastard ned him and put him on exhibit, or the names of those who fainted or wept, or flinched? They’re dust, and he’s immortal Besides, when he went out in public, that hooded cloak he ay cool
On other walls were four posters of ageless sex goddess De than ever in a series of Versace ads
Twenty-one years old, two inches short of the five feet that he clairowth that so of his frequent fractures, Danny lived s
No one stabbedanyone to stab me, but that’s when it’s likely to happen
If Mojave wind still whipped the night, I couldn’t hear it inside this thick-walled Georgian structure, which seemed tomblike in its stillness, in its conditioned chill, with a faint scent of blood on the cool air
I dared not any longer delay calling Chief Porter Standing in the upstairs hall, I pressed 2 on my cell-phone keypad and speed-dialed his ho, he sounded awake
Alert for the approach of a mad anchorwoman or worse, I spoke softly: Sir, I’ here with Louis L’Aht he was dead, sir
About as dead as Dickens Tell ain
I didn’t ask for trouble, sir But you better colary
Murder, I said Wilbur Jessup on the floor of his bedroo kidnapped
Simon, he said
Simon Makepeace--Carol’s first husband, Danny’s father--had been released fro sixteen years for hter
Better come with soet the feeling
You hold back, Odd
You know I can’t
I don’t understand your compulsion