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"The grille’s not held in place by screws," he told Tal, "It’s a spring-clip model, so it could conceivably have been snapped into place fro as he wriggled in feet-first"

He pulled the grille off the wall

Tal handed hiht

Bryce directed the hewn into the dark heating duct and frowned The narrow,a ninety-degree upward turn

Switching off the flashlight and passing it down to Tal Bryce said, "Ile would have to’ve been no bigger than Sammy Davis, Jr, and as flexible as the rubber man in a carnival sideshow"

Frank Autry approached Bryce Hammond at the operations desk in theover the ht

"Sir, there’s sole"

Bryce looked up "What’s that?"

"Well… I don’t like to have to speak ill of the dead"

"None of us cared much for him," Bryce said flatly, "Any attempt to honor histhat’ll help me, spill it, Frank"

Frank smiled "You’d have done real well for yourself in the arle and I were dis the radio over at the substation, he e and Lisa"

"Sex stuff?"

"Yeah"

Frank recounted the conversation that he’d had with Wargle

"Christ," Bryce said, shaking his head

Frank said, "The thing about the girl hat bothered le was half serious when he talked abouta move on her if the opportunity arose I don’t think he’d have gone as far as rape, but he was capable of e, to coerce her I don’t think that kid could be coerced; she’s too spunky But I think Wargle ht’ve tried it"

The sheriff tapped a pencil on the desk, staring thoughtfully into the air

"But Lisa couldn’t have known," Frank said

"She couldn’t have overheard any of your conversation?"

"Not a word"

"She le was from the way he looked at her"

"But she couldn’t have known," Frank said, "Do you see what I’ at?"

"Yes"

"Most kids," Frank said, "if they were going to make up a tall tale, they would be satisfied just to say they’d been chased by a deadthe dead ree "Kids’ minds aren’t that baroque Their lies are usually simple, not elaborate"

"Exactly," Frank said, "The fact that she said Wargle was naed and wanted to molest her… well… to me, that seems to add credibility to her story Noe’d all like to believe that sole’s body And we’d like to believe they put the body in the ladies’ rooined all the rest And we’d like to believe that after she fainted, soot the corpse out of there by some incredibly clever means But that explanation is full of holes What happened was a lot stranger than that"

Bryce dropped his pencil and leaned back in his chair "Shit You believe in ghosts, Frank? The living dead?"

"No There’s a real explanation for this," Frank said, "Not a bunch of superstitious ree," Bryce said, "But Wargle’s face was…"

"I know I saw it"

"How could his face have been put back together?"

"I don’t know"

"And Lisa said his eyes"

"Yeah I heard what she said"

Bryce sighed "You ever worked Rubik’s Cube?"

Frank blinked "No I never did"

"Well, I did," the sheriff said, "The da almost drove me crazy, but I stuck with it, and eventually I solved it Everybody thinks that’s a hard puzzle, but coame"

"There’s another difference," Frank said

"What’s that?"

"If you fail to solve Rubik’s Cube, the punishment isn’t death"

In Santa Mira, in his cell in the county jail, Fletcher Kale, slayer of wife and son, woke before dawn He lay motionless on the thin foaular slab of the predawn sky for his inspection

He would not spend his life in prison Would not

He had ano one understood They saw the Fletcher Kale who existed noithout being able to see what he would beco, power beyond i, fame, respect

Kale kneas different froe that kept hireatness within hi In ti they had been about hiht as he stared up at the barred , perception is ift I’m extraordinarily perceptive

He saw that, without exception, hu with that It was the nature of the species That was how humankind was meant to be But most people could not bear to face the truth The up so-called inspiring concepts like love, friendship, honor, truthfulness, faith, trust, and individual dignity They clais and more; however, at heart, they kneas all bullshit They just couldn’t admit it And so, they stupidly hobbled theratulatory code of conduct, with noble but hollow senti themselves to failure and unhappiness

Fools God, he despised them

From his unique perspective, Kale saw that iving species on earth And he reveled in that knowledge He was proud to be a member of such a race

I’e of his bunk and put his bare feet on the cold floor of his cell I am the next step of evolution I’ve evolved beyond the need to believe inNot because I killed Joanna and Danny They hate me because I’m better than they are, more completely in touch with my true human nature

He’d had no choice but to kill Joanna She had refused to give him the money, after all She had been prepared to humiliate him professionally, ruin him financially, and wreck his entire future

He’d had to kill her She was in his way

It was too bad about Danny Kale sort of regretted that part Not always Just now and then Too bad Necessary, but too bad

Anyway, Danny had always been a regular ht distant toward his father That was Joanna’s handiwork She had probably been brainwashing the kid, turning hiainst his old man In the end, Danny really hadn’t been Kale’s son at all He’d becoot down on the floor of, his cell and began to do pushups

One-two, one-two, one-two

He intended to keep himself in shape for that moment when an opportunity for escape presented itself He knew exactly where he would go when he escaped Not west, not out of the country, not over toward Sacramento That’s what they would expect him to do

One-two, one-two

He knew of a perfect hideout It was right here in the county They wouldn’t be looking for him under their noses When they couldn’t find him in a day or so, they’d decide he had already split, and they’d stop actively looking in this neighborhood When severalabout hier, then he would leave the hideout, double back through town, and head west

One-two