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Usually I auys fall out with one another, because disharmony in their ranks canmany deaths and vast destruction such that the sky and sea would burn with bloody light, as in er hotheads in addition to being criht and hurriedly searched the dresser drawers They contained only clothes, and not h I had been in the house no et out Maybe these ht return to remove the bodies and clean up the evidence of violence

Twitching as if electrical ih the frayed fibers of ht that I heard stealthy noises elsewhere in the house

Chastisingtoo easily spooked, I nevertheless decided not to leave by the way I had entered

Dousing the flashlight, I swept aside the draperies Thesash slid up as smoothly as it had alow ca kicked open, and an instant later the front door was booted in as well

I had spoken of one devil, and another had arrived Murderers, returning to the scene of a cri the evidence, would never call attention to the down the doors anyparty horns

From within the house, alow as quickly and as quietly as an experienced sneak thief, which is perhaps not a skill that I should tru entity that could reproduce itself, the fog seeht one inside five minutes earlier

The police had arrived without sirens and also without switching on the e red or blue beacons stained the fog

Again I thought of seed pods froh I didn’t believe that the Magic Beach Police Depart for human, I did suspect that at least some of them were less than exemplars of law enforcement

Because I had taken Sam Whittle’s wallet on the beach but had not taken his ht look hialow as if they kneo bodies were stashed there--which meant I had been lured inside to take the fall for thethe bungalow by the front and the back Not all of the, a flashlight appeared at the front corner of the house

The beam could not reach ht and while I was likewise invisible, I ht quested through thefroht h I could see no house lights The aloould soon find thethat I had left open, and uponthat discovery, they would focus all their resources in this direction

When I walked boldly into a chain-link fence thathere he is, here he is, here he is

TWENTY-THREE

IN DEFENSE OF MY SNEAK-THIEF REPUTATION, I must point out that no shrubs fronted the fence to warn rew on it, the tendrils of whichme inches short of the collision The steel chain was pretty

I am not one who believes that life is unfair or that we are all victims of a cruel or indifferent universe, but this fence struck ht have sat down and pouted about it if my freedom and possibly even my life hadn’t been in jeopardy

As soon as the chain-link announced my ineptitude, one of the men behind me said What was that? and the other one said Yancy, is that you? and both flashlights probed toward the source of the chain song

I had nowhere to go but up, so I cli a harpist-fro I would not encounter coils of lacerating razor wire at the top

Behind me, entirely comfortable with clichés, a cop shouted, Stop or I’ll shoot!

I doubted they could see e of randohborhood

As I cliainst the prospect of a bullet in the spine, because you never knohat ht happen in a universe that, at a critical moment, throws an invisible chain-link fence in front of you

Sometimes when people are shot in the spine and take more than an instant to die, they lose control of their bowels I tightened my sphincter so that my corpse would not be an embarrassment to me or to those who had to deal with it While I a filthy

Good fences h that they had not felt the need for razor wire at the top I crested the fence, threw myself into the yard beyond, fell, rolled to arroted by a taut clothesline

I heard panting, looked down, and saw a golden retriever running at ue lolling, grinning, as though jazzed by the prospect of an unscheduled play session

Because I did not think a dog would run head-on into a fence or into the side of a house, or into a tree, I sprinted boldly through the clotted clouds, eyes directed down at e I broke left and right each tih it occurred towith a sense of humor, he would race past a tree with no roos do laugh, as any true dog lover knows In s do not have a cruel sense of huh at hue it

To h reensward along Hecate’s Canyon, when she had tried to help h I had not understood most of it:

Why do you believe me so readily?

I don’t know

But you do know…

Give me a hint Why do I believe you so readily?