Page 8 (2/2)

Chapter 12

Opening off the upper hallere three bedrooms, a bathroom, and a closet Four of those five doors were closed

On both sides of the entrance to theto that open door

Reluctant to be herded, thinking of anihterhouse, Billy left the master bedroom for last He first checked the hall bath Then the closet and the two other bedroo the dishtowel, he wiped all the doorknobs after he touched the to be searched, he stood in the hall, listening No pin dropped

So had stuck in his throat, and he couldn’t s it He couldn’t s it because it was nodown the small of his back

He entered the lowed

The rose-patterned wallpaper chosen by Lanny’s mother had not been removed after she died and not even, a few years later, after Lanny e had darkened the background to a pleasing shade reht tea stain The bedspread had been one of Pearl Olsen’s favorites: rose in color overall, with e Mrs Olsen’s illness, following che radiation treatments, Billy had sat with her in this room Sometimes he just talked to her or watched her sleep Often he read to her She had liked swashbuckling adventure stories Stories set during the Raj in India Stories with geishas and saone, and noas Lanny Dressed in his unifors propped on a footstool, but he was gone just the same He had been shot in the forehead Billy didn’t want to see this He dreaded having this i, however, was not an option It never had been, neither twenty years ago nor now, nor any time between If he ran, he would be chased down and destroyed The hunt was on, and for reasons he didn’t understand, he was the ultiht would not save him Speed never saved the fox To escape the hounds and the hunters, the fox needed cunning and a taste for risk Billy didn’t feel like a fox He felt like a rabbit, but he would not run like one The lack of blood on Lanny’s face, the lack of leakage fros: that death had been instantaneous and that the back of his skull had been blown out No bloodstains or brain matter soiled the wallpaper behind the chair Lanny had not been drilled as he sat there, had not been shot anywhere in this room

As Billy had not found blood elsewhere in the house, he assuotten up from the kitchen table, fro fresh air, and had stepped outside Maybe he realized that his aih for the bathroom and therefore went into the backyard to relieve hi toathe deadthe stairs, would have been a hard job Hard and seely unnecessary

To have done it, however, he must have had a reason that was ihtly in their sockets The left one was askew, as if he’d had a cast eye in life

Pressure For the instant during which the bullet had transited the brain, pressure inside the skull soared before being relieved

A book-club novel lay in Lanny’s lap, a smaller and more cheaply produced volume than the handsome edition of the same title that had been available in bookstores At least two hundred similar books were shelved at one end of the bedroom

Billy could see the title, the author’s name, and the jacket illustration The story was about a search for treasure and true love in the South Pacific A long tio, he had read this novel to Pearl Olsen She had liked it, but then she had liked theht hand rested on the book He appeared to have raph, a ses

The psychopath had arranged all of this The tableau satisfied hie--a riddle, a taunt Before disturbing the scene, Billy studied it Nothing about it seeht have excited the h to motivate him to put forth such effort in its creation

Billy reater passion, he hated that Lanny had been afforded no dignity even in death The freak dragged hied him as if he were a mannequin, a doll, as if he had existed only for the creep’s amusement and manipulation

Lanny had betrayed Billy; but that didn’t e of the Dark, on the brink of the Void, few offenses orth re were the hter If they had been at odds on Lanny’s last day, they were on the saular adversary

Billy thought he heard a noise in the hall

Without hesitation, holding the revolver in both hands, he left thethe 38 left to right, seeking a target No one

The bathroom, closet, and other bedroom doors were closed, as he had left theain Henoise as the old house protested the weight of time, but it al or closing

He blotted the daun to it, blotted his right hand, returned the gun to it, and went to the head of the stairs

From the lower floor, fro but a suht hush

Chapter 13

As he stood at the head of the stairs, listening, pain had begun to throb in Billy’s tehter than the jaws of a vise He tried to relax and breathe through histhe stiffening muscles of his neck Stress could be beneficial if you used it to stay focused and alert Fear could paralyze, but also sharpen the survival instinct He returned to the ht body and book would be gone But Lanny still sat in the arhtstands, Billy plucked two Kleenex Using thelove, hethe book on the cadaver’s lap, he opened it to the place that had been raphs to have been highlighted in soe But the text was pristine Still using the Kleenex, he picked up the photo, a snapshot

She was young and blond and pretty Nothing in the picture gave a clue to her profession, but Billy knew that she had been a teacher Her killer must have found this snapshot in her house, down in Napa Before or after finding it, he brutally beat the beauty out of her No doubt the freak had left the photograph in the book to confirm for the authorities that the twoHe wanted the credit that he had earned The only wisdom we can hope to acquire is the wisdom of humility…

The freak hadn’t learned that lesson Perhaps his failure to learn it would lead to his fall

If it was possible to feel genuinely heartbroken over the fate of a stranger, the photo of this young wo He returned it to the book and closed it in the yellowing pages After putting the dead man’s hand atop the book, as it had been, he wadded the two Kleenex in his fist He went into the bathrooer with the Kleenex, and then dropped the water in the toilet bowl

In the bedroom, he stood beside the armchair, not sure what he should do Lanny did not deserve to be left here alone without benefit of prayer or justice If not a close friend, he had nevertheless been a friend Besides, he was Pearl Olsen’s son, and that ought to count for a lot