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Besides, Hilda had died suddenly, while cooking, without first suffering fever, incontinence-which ruled out the plague And which, in fact, ruled out every other known infectious disease, too

Yet there were no blatant signs of violence No bleeding gunshot wounds No stab wounds No indications that the housekeeper had been beaten or strangled

Jenny stepped around the body and went to the counter by the sink She touched the head of cabbage and was startled to find that it was still chilled It hadn’t been here on the cutting board any longer than an hour or so

She turned away froreater dread than before

The woht even still be warm to the touch

But what had killed her?

Jenny was no closer to an answer now than she had been before she’d exah disease didn’t seem to be the culprit here, she couldn’t rule it out The possibility of contagion, though re her concern from Lisa, Jenny said, "Come on, honey I can use the phone inbetter now," Lisa said, but she got up at once, obviously eager to go

Jenny put an arirl, and they left the kitchen

An unearthly quiet filled the house The silence was so deep that the whisper of their footsteps on the hall carpet was thunderous by contrast

Despite overhead fluorescent lights, Jenny’s office wasn’t a stark, impersonal room like those that many physicians preferred these days Instead, it was an old-fashioned, country doctor’s office, rather like a Nor Post Bookshelves were overfloith books andcabinets that Jenny had gotten for a good price at an auction The walls were hung with diploe watercolor studies of Snowfield Beside the locked drug cabinet, there was a scale, and beside the scale, on a small table, was a box of inexpensive toys-little plastic cars, tiny soldiers, um that were dispensed as rewards-or bribes-to children who didn’t cry during exae, scarred, dark pine desk was the centerpiece of the roo leather chair behind it

"I’ on the edge of the desk and pulling the telephone toward her

"I’m sorry I flaked out on you When I saw… the body… I… well… I got hysterical"

"You weren’t hysterical at all Just shocked and frightened, which is understandable"

"But you weren’t shocked or frightened"

"Oh, yes," Jenny said, "Not just shocked; stunned"

"But you weren’t scared, like I was"

"I was scared, and I still am" Jenny hesitated, then decided that, after all, she shouldn’t hide the truth fro possibility of contagion "I don’t think it is a disease that we’re dealing with here, but I could be wrong And if I’irl stared at Jenny ide-eyed amazement "You were scared, likethe body Jeez, I couldn’t do that Not me Not ever"

"Well, honey, I’m a doctor I’m trained for it"

"Still…"

"You didn’t flake out on me," Jenny assured her

Lisa nodded, apparently unconvinced

Jenny lifted the telephone receiver, intending to call the sheriff’s Snowfield substation before contacting the coroner over in Santa Mira, the county seat There was no dial tone, just a soft hissing sound She jiggled the disconnect buttons on the phones cradle, but the line re sinister about the phone being out of order when a dead woman lay in the kitchen Mrs Beck had been murdered If someone cut the telephone line and crept into the house, and if he sneaked up on Hilda with care and cunning… well… he could have stabbed her in the back with a long-bladed knife that had sunk deep enough to pierce her heart, killing her instantly In that case, the wound would have been where Jenny couldn’t have seen it-unless she had rolled the corpse completely over, onto its stomach That didn’t explain why there wasn’t any blood And it didn’t explain the universal bruising, the swelling Nevertheless, the wound could be in the housekeeper’s back, and since she had died within the past hour, it was also conceivable that the killer-if there was a killer-ination run aith ht

But she decided it would be wise for her and Lisa to get out of the house right away

"We’ll have to go next door and ask Vince or Angie Santini toup froe of the desk "Our phone is out of order"

Lisa blinked "Does that have anything to do with… what happened?"

"I don’t know," Jenny said

Her heart was pounding as she crossed the office toward the half-closed door She wondered if so Jenny, Lisa said, "But the phone being out of order now… it’s kind of strange, isn’t it?"

"A little"

Jenny half-expected to encounter a huge, grinning stranger with a knife One of those sociopaths who seemed to be in such abundant supply these days One of those Jack the Ripper imitators whose bloody handiwork kept the TV reporters supplied with grisly film for the six o’clock news

She looked into the hall before venturing out there, prepared to jump back and sla at Lisa, Jenny saw the girl had quickly grasped the situation

They hurried along the hall toward the front of the house, and as they approached the stairs to the second floor, which lay just this side of the foyer, Jenny’s nerves ound tighter than ever The killer-if there is a killer, she re to thee down the steps as they passed hih in his hand…

But no one waited on the stairs

Or in the foyer Or on the front porch

Outside, the twilight was fading rapidly into night The reht was purplish, and shadows-a zo out of tens of thousands of places in which they had hidden froht In ten minutes, it would be dark…

Chapter 4 – The House Next Door

The Santinis’ stone and redwood house was of n than Jenny’s place, all rounded corners and gentle angles It thrust up fro to the contours of the slope, set against a backdrop of massive pines; it alhts were on in a couple of the downstairs roo inside

Jenny rang the bell and stepped back a few paces, where Lisa aiting She believed that the two of theht to keep some distance between themselves and the Santinis; it was possible they had been conta in the kitchen with Mrs Beck’s corpse

"Couldn’t ask for better neighbors," she told Lisa, wishing the hard, cold lump in her stomach would melt "Nice people"

No one responded to the doorbell