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She was a pretty redhead Facing the camera Terrified

She would have had a nice smile

He had never seen her before That didn’t hter Somewhere people loved her Waste the bitch

Those words, echoing in memory, nearly dropped Billy to his knees For twenty years, his emotions had not merely been restrained Some of them had been denied He had allowed himself to feel only what seeer only in ed hatred whatsoever He had been afraid that by adht unleash furious torrents that would destroy him Restraint in the face of evil, however, was no virtue, and to hate this hohteous passion, hter even than the pain that had seemed to make of hi Cottle to his own devices in the living roo if when he returned he would find the dead man still on the sofa

Chapter 54

In Lanny’s bathrooe of liquid bandage, and an array of pharmacy bottles with caps that all warned CAUTION! NOT CHILD RESISTANT

The nail, having been clean, had not itself been an agent of infection But it ht have carried bacteria from the surface of the skin into the wound Billy poured alcohol in his cupped left hand, hoping it would seep into the puncture wound After a an

Because he had been careful not to flex his handhad already nearly stopped The alcohol did not restart it This was imperfect sterilization He had neither the time nor the resources to do a better job

He painted liquid bandage on both the entrance and exit wounds This would help prevent filth fro into the puncture

More ie--which dried into a flexible rubbery seal--should inhibit further bleeding

The plethora of pharmacy bottles each contained a few tablets or capsules Evidently Lanny had been a bad patient who never quite finished a course of medication, but always reserved a portion hich to treat himself in the future

Billy found two prescriptions for an antibiotic--Cipro, 500One bottle contained three tablets, the other five

He coht into one bottle He peeled the label off and threw it in the waste can

More than infection, he worried about inflammation If his hand swelled and stiffened, he would be at a disadvantage in whatever confrontationthe medications, he discovered Vicodin It would not prevent inflareorse Four tablets re time with his pulse, an ache throbbed in his wounded hand And when he looked again at the photograph of the redhead, pain of a different character, eift Humanity, without pain, would know neither fear nor pity Without fear, there could be no hunition of pain and fear in others gives rise in us to pity, and in our pity is our humanity, our redemption

In the redhead’s eyes, pure terror In her face, the wretched recognition of her fate

He had not been able to save her But if the freak had played the ga to his rules, she had not been tortured

As Billy’s attention shifted fronized his bedroom She had been held captive in Billy’s house She had been killed there

Chapter 55

Sitting on the edge of the tub in Lanny’s bathroo the photo of the redhead, Billy worked out the chronology of the murder The psychopath had called--when?--perhaps around twelve-thirty in the afternoon, earlier this saeants had left and after Cottle had been wrapped for disposal For Billy, he had played the recording that offered two choices: the redhead tortured to death; the redhead le shot or thrust

Even at that time, the killer already held her captive Almost surely he let her listen to the tape as he played it over the phone

At one o’clock, Billy had left for Napa Thereafter, the killer brought the woman into the house, took this snapshot, and killed her cleanly When the freak found Ralph Cottle wrapped in the tarp and stowed behind the sofa, his spirit of fun had been engaged He swapped thely dropped the redhead down the lava pipe, thereby denying her fa a body to bury

This switch of cadavers felt like Zillis: this adolescent humor, the casualness hich he could soone to work until six o’clock He would have been free to play

But now the creep was at the tavern He could not have propped Cottle on the sofa and fired the nail gun

Billy glanced at his atch Eleven-forty-one

He ht he was going to bundle the photo with other evidence and drop it down the volcanic vent He wanted to reed to fix her face in mee over the phone, if this wo, perhaps she had also heard Billy’s reply: Waste the bitch

Those words had spared her torture, but now they tortured Billy He could not throay her photo Keeping the snapshot was not a prudent act; it was dangerous Yet he folded it, being careful not to crease her face, and tucked it in his wallet

Warily, he went out to the Explorer He thought he would know if the freak was still nearby, watching The night felt safe, and clean He put the punctured latex glove in the trash bag, and pulled on a fresh one He unplugged his cell phone and took it with hih all the rooarbage bag, including the photo of Giselle Winslohich he would not keep), the cartoon hands, the nail…

Finished, he put the bag by the back door

He got a clean glass Fro on the table, he poured a few ounces of warroorse He took one tablet of Cipro, one of Vicodin

He decided to eradicate all evidence of his friend’s drinking binge The house should offer nothing unusual for the police to conteh, they would coh the s They would co down ruht infer depression and the possibility of suicide

The sooner they leaped to dire conclusions, the sooner they would search the farther reaches of the property The longer that the trampled brush had to recover, the less likely they would ever focus on the securely covered lava pipe

When all was neat and when the garbage bag of evidence was tied shut, when only Ralph Cottle remained to be attended, Billy used his cell phone to call the back bar number at the tavern

Jackie O’Hara answered "Tavern"

"How’re the pigs with human brains?" Billy asked