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Yet to phone the sheriff’s departht be a mistake They would want an explanation for the call that had been placed from this house to Billy’s place soon after the murder; and he still had not decided what to tell theht point the finger of suspicion at him Circumstantial evidence

Perhaps the ultimate intention of the killer was to frame Billy for these murders and for others

Undeniably, the freak saw this as a game The rules, if any, were known only to him

Likewise, the definition of victory was known only to hi the final touchdownBilly to prison for life not for any rational reason, not so the freak himself could escape justice, but for the sheer fun of it Considering that he could not even discern the shape of the playing field, Billy didn’t relish being interrogated by Sheriff John palmer He needed time to think A few hours at least Until dawn "I’m sorry," he told Lanny

He switched off one of the bedside lalowed like a centenarian’s birthday cake through the night, soht notice And wonder Everyone knew Lanny Olsen was an early-to-bed guy The house stood at the highest and loneliest point of the deadend lane Virtually no one drove up here unless they were co the next eight or ten hours Midnight had turned Tuesday to Wednesday Wednesday and Thursday were Lanny’s days off No one would miss him at work until Friday Nevertheless, one by one, Billy returned to the other upstairs roohts as well

He doused the hall lights and went down the stairs, uneasy about all the darkness at his back

In the kitchen, he closed the door to the porch and locked it He intended to take Lanny’s spare key with hih the first floor, he turned off all the lights, including the cera the barrel of the handgun to flip the switches

Standing on the front porch, he locked that door as well, and wiped the knob

He felt watched as he descended the steps He surveyed the lawn, the trees, glanced back at the house

All the ere black, and the night was black, and Billy walked away from that closed darkness into an open darkness under an India-ink sky in which stars seemed to float, seemed to tre the shoulder of the lane, ready to take cover in the roadside brush if headlights appeared

Frequently, he glanced back As far as he could tell, no one followed hiht favored a stalker It should have favored Billy, too, but he felt exposed by the stars

At the house with the chest-high fence, the half-seen dog onceBilly with a whimper It sounded desperate

He sympathized with the aniht, however, and his need to plan left him no time to stop and console the beast

Besides, every expression of desired friendship has potential bite Every slanced behind, and held tight to the revolver, and then turned left into the rass in a fear of snakes

One question pressed upon hiently than others: Was the killer soer?

If the freak had been in Billy’s life well prior to the first note, a secret sociopath who could no longer keep his hoht be difficult but possible Analysis of relationships and a search of ht unearth clues Deductive reasoning and iination would likely paint a face, spell out a twisted er who selected Billy at random for torment and eventual destruction, detective ould befor a o in the history of the world, routine daily violence--excluding the ravages of nations at war--had been largely personal in nature Grudges, slights to honor, adultery, disputes over ered the murderous impulse

In the modern world, more in the postmodern, most of all in the postpostmodern, s, lone sociopaths, sociopaths in groups and pledged to a Utopian vision killed people they did not know, against whom they had no realistic co a statement, intimidation, or even just for the thrill of it

The freak, whether known or unknown to Billy, was a daunting adversary Judging by all evidence, he was bold but not reckless, psychopathic but selfcontrolled, clever, ingenious, cunning, with a baroque and Machiavellian mind By contrast, Billy Wiles made his way in the world as plainly and directly as he could His mind was not baroque His desires were not couarded hope

Hurrying through tall pale grass that lashed against his legs and seemed to pass conspiratorial whispers blade to blade, he felt that he had more in coreat spreading oak tree loomed As Billy passed under it, unseen presences stirred in the boughs overhead, testing pinions, but no wings took flight

Beyond the Ford Explorer, the church looked like an ice carving , he unlocked the SUV with the reed by two electronic chirps and a double flash of the parking lights He got in, closed the door, and locked up again He dropped the revolver on the passenger’s seat

When he atte foiled hi coluth of tape

A note

The third note

The killerthe turnoff to Lanny Olsen’s place, to see if Billy would take the bait Helot

The vehicle had been locked The freak could have gotten into it only by breaking a ; but none was broken The car alarered

Thus far, every ht hand But the discovery of this third note seeh a membrane from the true world into one of fantasy With a drea coluhts, activated automatically when he boarded the SUV, were still on, for he had so recently shut and locked the door The e--a question--was clearly visible and succinct A re you prepared for your first wound?

Chapter 15

Are you prepared for your first wound?

As though an Einsteinian switch had thrown tiers and seeht went out

In a trance of terror, reaching with his right hand for the revolver on the passenger’s seat, Billy turned slowly to the right as well, intending to look over his shoulder and into the dark backseat

There would seem to be too little roootten into the Explorer hastily, heedlessly He groped for the elusive gun, his fingertips brushed the checked grip of the weapon--and thein the driver’s door ilass collapsed in a prickly hs, the revolver slipped out of his grasping fingers and tu, before Billy could turn to face the assault, the freak reached into the SUV and seized a handful of his hair, at the crown of his head, twisted it and palled hard

Trapped by the steering wheel and the console, pulled ruthlessly by the hair, unable to scraun, he clawed at the hand that held hilove protected it

The freak was strong, vicious, relentless