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Not sure if he would stop or just cruise past, Billy drove the Explorer off the shoulder of the road, down a gentle e around to the far side of the motor hoht angled down the steps and painted a welcoround
He stopped For a while he sat with the engine running, one foot on the brake, one poised above the accelerator
Most of the ere not covered He couldn’t see anyone in the spaces beyond
Only the ard the rear, which were probably in the bedrooolden material Inescapably, Billy concluded that he was expected
He was loath to accept this invitation He wanted to drive away He had nowhere to go
Less than twenty hours re" would occur Barbara, still in jeopardy
Because of evidence that Valis ht have planted in addition to what had been on the cadavers, Billy remained a potential suspect in the disappearances that would soon become known to the police: Lanny, Ralph Cottle, the redheaded young woe, or buried in his yard, was the hand of Giselle Winslow Surely other souvenirs, as well
He put the Explorer in park, doused the headlights, but did not switch off the engine
Near the dark tent stood a Lincoln Navigator Evidently it hat Valis used for local travel You are worthy
Billy pulled on a fresh pair of latex gloves
Some stiffness but no pain troubled his left hand
He wished he had not taken a Vicodin at Lanny’s Unlike most painkillers, Vicodin left the mind clear, but he worried that if his perceptions and reflexes were dulled even half a percent, that lost edge ht be the death of him Maybe the caffeine tablets and the coffee would coine In the first instant thereafter, the night seemed as silent as any house of the deaf
In consideration of the unpredictability of this adversary, he prepared for action both lethal and otherwise
As to the choice of a deadlier weapon, he preferred the 38 revolver because of its faot out of the Explorer
Songs of crickets rose to dispel the silence, and the throat-clearing of toads Pennants on the tent whispered in the barest breath of a breeze Billy walked to the open door of the ht but hesitated to ascend the steps
Froh-quality speakers of the motor-home sound system, which apparently doubled as intercom, a voice said,
"Barbara could be allowed to live"
Billy cli armchairs for the driver and copilot They were upholstered in what ht have been ostrich skin Remotely operated, the door closed behind Billy He assuhly customized vehicle, a bulkhead separated the cockpit fro quarters Another open door awaited hi in shades of cream and honey Marble floor, bird’s-eye maple cabinets with the sinuous rounded contours of ship’s cabinetry The exceptions were black-granite countertops and stainless-steel appliances
Fro voice made a proposal: "I could whip up an early breakfast if you’d like"
Thearea that could coht in a pinch
The top of the e, carnelian, and holly wood as white as bone, in an intertwining ribbon h an archway in another bulkhead, Billy entered a large living room
None of the fabrics cost less than five hundred a square yard, the carpet twice as much The custom furniture was contemporary, but the numerous Japanese bronzes were priceless exa to soulars, who’d read about this motor home on the Internet, it had cost over a million and a half That would not include the bronzes
Sometimes vehicles like this were called "land yachts" The term wasn’t hyperbole
The closed door at the farther end of the living room no doubt led to a bedroom and bath It would be locked
Valis , and well armed Billy swiveled toward a soft noise behind hi-area bulkhead had been finished with beautiful narrow-reed baht, revealing secret display cases
And now blinds of brushed stainless steel descended to cover all the s, but with a sudden pneumatic snap that startled
Billy didn’t think those blinds were solely decorative Getting through them and out a ould be difficult if not in and installation phase, they had most likely been called
"security" devices
As the ascending tambour panels continued to reveal more display cases, the voice of Valis caain: "You may see iven the chance to leave here alive after seeing it Enjoy"
Chapter 70
The padded interiors of the cabinets behind the talass jars of two sizes held the collection The base of each jar nestled in a niche in its shelf A black-ena it to the underside of the shelf above These containers would not move whatsoever when the motor home was in hted by fiber-optic filaainst the backdrop of black silk As the la rooht of aquariulass worlds contained not fish but a memory of murder In a preservative fluid floated faces and hands
Every face was ghostly, each like a pale , the features of one hardly distinguishable from those of the others The hands were different from one another, said risly than he would have assue
"Aren’t they beautiful?" Valis said, and sounded somewhat like HAL 9000
in 2001: A Space Odyssey
"They’re sad," Billy said
"What an odd word to choose," Valis said "They delight me"
"They fill ood Despair can be the nadir of one life and the starting point of an ascent into another, better one"
Billy didn’t turn away from the collection in fear or revulsion He assu watched by closed-circuit cameras His reaction see as this display ance, and exerted a certain fascination
The collector had not been so coarse as to include genitalia or breasts Billy suspected that Valis did not kill for any kind of sexual gratification, did not rape his fee at least that single aspect of shared humanity He seemed to want to think of himself as a creature apart
Neither did the artist deforrotesque No eyeballs, no internal organs
Faces and hands, faces and hands
Staring at the illuht of miloved hands
Although perverse, here was an aestheticthe vivid display, "a harmony of line, a sensitivity to form Perhaps most important, a restraint that is chaste but not fastidious"
Valis said nothing
Curiously, by standing face to face with Death and not letting fear control, Billy was at last no longer evading life to any degree, but e it
"I have read your book of short stories," Valis said
"In critiquing your work," Billy told hi criticish escaped Valis, a warh as the speakers translated it "Actually, I found your fiction to be fascinating, and strong"
Billy did not reply
"They are the stories of a seeker," Valis said "You know the truth of life, but you circle around that fruit, circle and circle, reluctant to ad from the collection, Billy moved to the nearest Meiji bronzes, a pair of fish, sinuous, simply but exquisitely detailed, the bronze meticulously finished to mimic the tone and texture of rusted iron
"Power," Billy said "Power is part of the truth of life"
Behind the locked door, Valis waited
"And emptiness," Billy said "The void The abyss"
Heside by side, the scholar bearded and sold inlay
"The choice," Billy said, "is chaos or control With poe can create With power and chaste intent, we create art And art is the only answer to chaos and the void"
After a silence, Valis said, "Only one thing holds you to the past I can release you from it"
"By one more murder?" Billy asked
"No She can live, and you can move on to a new life… when you know"