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None of the shutters wasin the wind, as Paul had thought
Wearing galoshes and a raincoat with a hood, he walked all the way around the house, studying each set of shutters on the first and second floors, but he couldn’t see anything ae
Perplexed, he circled the house again, each step resulting in a squishing noise as the rain-saturated lawn gave like a sodden sponge beneath hiht be swinging against the walls when the wind gusted The trees were all intact
Shivering in the unseasonably chilly autu his head to the right and then to the left, listening for the pounding that had filled the house o He couldn’t hear it now The only sounds were the soughing wind, the rustling trees, and the rain driving into the grass with a soft, steady hiss
At last, his face nu rain, he decided to halt his search until the pounding started again and gave hiet a fix on Meanwhile, he could drive don and pick up the application forency He put one hand to his face, felt his beard stubble, reured he ought to shave before he went
He reentered the house by way of the screened-in rear porch, leaving his dripping coat on a vinyl-upholstered glider and shedding his galoshes before going into the kitchen Inside, he closed the door behind him and basked for a moment in the warm air
THUNK! THUNK! THUNK!
The house shuddered as if it had received three extreiant Above the kitchen’s central utility island, where a utensil rack was suspended fro on their hooks and clattered against one another
THUNK!
The wall clock rattled on its hook; if it had been any less fir itself off the wall, onto the floor
Paulto ascertain the direction fro
THUNK! THUNK!
The oven door fell open
The two dozen sainst one another
What the hell is happening here? he wondered uneasily
THUNK!
He turned slowly, listening, seeking
The pots and pans clattered again, and a large ladle slipped fro to the butcher-block work surface that lay under it
Paul looked up at the ceiling, tracking the sound
THUNK!
He expected to see the plaster crack, but it didn’t
Nevertheless, the source of the sound was definitely overhead
Thwzk, thunk-thunk, thunk
The pounding suddenly grew quieter than it had been, but it didn’t fade away altogether At least the house stopped quivering, and the cooking utensils stopped banging together
Paul headed for the stairs, determined to track down the cause of the disturbance
The blonde was in the gutter, flat on her back, one arm out at her side with the palm up and the hand slack, the other arolden hair was ed
around her, carrying leaves and grit and scraps of paper litter toward the nearest stor hair fanned out around her head and rippled silkily in those filthy currents
Carol knelt beside the woman and was shocked to
see that the victiirl, no older than fourteen or fifteen She was exceptionally pretty, with delicate features, and at the ly pale
She was also inadequately dressed for inclement weather She hite tennis shoes, jeans, and a blue and white checkered blouse She had neither a raincoat nor an uht arm and felt the wrist for a pulse She found the beat at once; it was strong and steady
"Thank God," Carol said shakily "Thank God, thank God"
She began to exa There did not seem to be any serious injuries, no major blood loss, just a few shallow cuts and abrasions Unless, of course, the bleeding was internal
The driver of the Cadillac, a tall oatee, stepped around the end of the VW Rabbit and looked down at the injured girl "Is she dead?"
"No," Carol said She gently thuirl’s eyelids, then the other "Just unconscious
Probably aan ambulance?"
"I don’t know," he said
"Then you call one Quickly"
He hurried away, splashing through a puddle that was deeper than the tops of his shoes
Carol pressed down on the girl’s chin; the jaas slack, and the mouth fell open easily There was no visible obstruction, no blood, nothing that ray-haired wo a red and orange umbrella, ‘appeared out of the rain "It wasn’t your fault," she told Carol
"I saw it happen I saw it all The child darted out in front of you without looking There wasn’t a thing you could have done to prevent it"
"I saw it, too," said a portly man who didn’t quite fit under his black u
down the street like she was in a trance or so
No coat, no umbrella Eyes kind of blank She stepped off the curb, between those two vans, and just stood there for a few seconds, like she was just waiting for soet herself killed And by God, that’s what happened"
"She’s not dead," Carol said, unable to keep a tremor out of her voice "There’s a first-aid kit on the back seat of et it fortoward the vw
The first-aid kit contained, aue depressors, and Carol wanted to have those handy Although the unconscious girl didn’t appear to be headed for imminent convulsions, Carol intended to be prepared for the worst
A crowd had begun to gather
A siren sounded a couple of blocks away, approaching fast It was probably the police; the ambulance couldn’t have ray-haired woirl