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"I understand Nevertheless--"

"If you and I and George Nguyen are run down by trucks," Harry said, "in fact if each of us is run down by three trucks, willing candidates for trustees, acceptable to the court, are standing by and ready to take over Until they could be installed, day-today trust affairs would be in the hands of a bonded trust"

Hiswith his smile, Harry said, "Of allyet been disbarred"

"But if anything happened tome nuts"

"--is there anyone besides Dardre that we should worry about?"

"Like who?"

"Anyone"

"No"

"You’re sure?"

"Yes"

"No one who could take Barbara’sforward, arms on his desk, Harry said, "What’s this all about?"

Billy shrugged "I don’t know Lately I’ve just been… spooked"

After a silence, Harry said, "Maybe it’s tiot a life," Billy said, his voice too sharp considering that Harry was a friend and a decent guy

"You can look after Barbara, be faithful to her memory, and still have a life"

"She’s not just a memory She’s alive Harry, you’re the last person I want to have to punch in the ht No one can tell you what your heart should feel"

"Hell, Harry, I’d never punch you in thesoftly, Billy said, "You looked you You looked like a Muppet"

The graceful shadows of sunlit olive trees lass, and in the room

After a silence, Harry Avarkian said, "There are cases in which people have come out of a botulism coma with most of their faculties intact"

"They’re rare," Billy acknowledged

"Rare isn’t the same as never"

"I try to be realistic, but I don’t really want to be"

"I used to like vichyssoise," Harry said "Now if I even happen to see it on a shelf in a superet sick toat the tavern one Saturday, Barbara had opened a can of soup for dinner Vichyssoise She rilled-cheese sandwich as well

When she didn’t answer her phone Sunday , he went to her apartment, let himself in with his key He found her unconscious on the bathroom floor

At the hospital she had been treated with antitoxin proh to spare her from death And now she slept And slept

Until she woke, if she woke, the extent of brain dae could not accurately be determined

The manufacturer of the soup, a reputable company, instantly pulled an entire run of vichyssoise off store shelves Out of more than three thousand cans, only six were found to be conta; therefore, in a way, Barbara’s suffering had spared at least six other people froed to find any comfort in that fact

"She’s a lovely woman," Harry said

"She’s pale and thin, but she’s still beautiful to me," Billy said "And inside sos I’ve told you She’s alive in there, and thinking"

He watched the olive-tree shadows projected onto the desk by the lens of the

He did not look at Harry He didn’t want to see the pity in the attorney’s eyes

After a while, Harry talked about the weather some more, and then Billy said, "Did you hear, at Princeton--orwith a hu crap like that everywhere," Harry said "They never learn The set"

"The horror of it"

"They don’t see the horror Just the glory and the lory could anyone have seen in Auschwitz? But so a mutual silence, Billy met Harry’s eyes "Do I kno to cheer up a roohed so hard since Abbott and Costello"

Chapter 36

At an electronics store in Napa, Billy bought a compact video camera and recorder The equipment could be used in the usual fashion or could be set instead to compile a continuous series of snapshots taken at intervals of a few seconds

In its second mode, loaded with the proper custo recorded surveillance si that the Explorer’s brokendidn’t allow him to lock any valuables in the vehicle, he paid for his purchases and arranged to return for them in half an hour

From the electronics store, he went in search of a newspaper-vending machine He found one in front of a pharmacy

The lead story concerned Giselle Winslow The schoolteacher had been , but her body had not been found until late Tuesday afternoon, less than twenty-four hours previously The picture of her in the newspaper was different from the one tucked in the book on Lanny Olsen’s lap, but they were photos of the sa the newspaper, Billy walked to the main branch of the county library He had a coer had Internet access; the library offered both

He was alone at the cluster of work stations Other patrons were at reading tables and prowling the stacks Maybe the e out to be the future of libraries, after all When he’d been writing fiction, he had used the Worldwide Web for research Later, it had provided distraction, escape In the past two years, he hadn’t surfed the Web at all

Meanwhile, things had changed Access was faster Searches were faster, too, and easier

Billy typed in a search string When he got no hits, he e laws varied state by state In h to tend bar until he enty-one, so Billy dropped bartender fro at the tavern only five raphies

Billy vaguely recalled that Steve had gone to college He could not re

Perhaps the word ot one hit Froht h Billy warned himself not to read into this discovery more than it actually contained, the information struck him as relevant

That November, at the University of Colorado at Denver, a coed na Initially, at least, there were no signs of foul play

In what appeared to be the first newspaper piece about thewoman, another UCD student, Steven Zillis, nineteen, was quoted as saying that Judith was "a wonderful girl, compassionate and concerned, a friend to everyone" He worried because "Judi is too responsible to just go off for a couple days without telling anyone her plans"

Another search string related to Judith Sarah Kesselman produced scores of hits Billy steeled himself for the discovery that her dead body had been found without a face

He went through the articles, reading closely at first As the material became repetitive, he scanned

Friends, relatives, and professors of Judith Kesselain

Judging by the wealth of material available to Billy, no trace of Judith had ever been found She vanished as completely as if she had stepped out of this universe into another