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Davis Weatherby lived in Corona Del Mar, within sight of the Pacific Ocean Vince had left his two-year-old Ford van three blocks from the doctor’s house The walk back to the van was very pleasant, invigorating This was a fine neighborhood boasting a variety of architectural styles; expensive Spanish casas sat beside beautifully detailed Cape Cod homes with a har was lush and well tended Palms and ficus and olive trees shaded the sidewalks Red, coral, yellow, and Orange bougainviflaeas blazed with thousands of flowers The bottlebrush trees were in bloom The branches of jacarandas dripped lacy purple blossoms The air was scented with star jas, so powerful, so alive

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So led, and so way before Travis realized that he had been completely jolted out of the despair and desperate loneliness that had brought him to the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains in the first place

The big tattered dog stayed with hi the dirt lane under the overhanging boughs of an enor at the truck, the retriever looked back the way they had coh the cloudless sky, as if engaged in reconnaissance for some mountain sorcerer A dark wall of trees looh the woods were gloomy, the dirt road onto which Travis had stepped was fully exposed to the sun, baked to a pale brown, mantled in fine, soft dust that plumed around his boots with each step he took He was surprised that such a bright day could have been abruptly filled with an overpowering, palpable sense of evil

Studying the forest out of which they had fled, the dog barked for the first ti, isn’t it?" Travis said

The dog glanced at him and mewled unhappily

"Yeah," he said, "I feel it too Crazyyet I feel it, too But what the hell’s out there, boy? Huh? What the hell is it?"

The dog shuddered violently

Travis’s own fear was a’s terror ate of the truck and said, "Co sprang into the cargo hold

Travis slaate shut and went around the side of the truck As he pulled open the driver’s door, he thought he glimpsed movement in nearby brush Not back toward the forest but at the far side of the dirt road Over there, a narrow field was choked aist-high brown grass as crisp as hay, a few bristly clu oleander bushes with roots deep enough to keep thereen When he stared directly at the field, he saw none of the ht froined it

With a renewed sense of urgency, he climbed into the truck and put the revolver on the seat beside him He drove away from there as fast as the washboard lane pered passenger in the cargo bed

Twenty o Canyon Road, back in the world of blacktop and civilization, he still felt weak and shaky But the fear that lingered was different froer dru The cold sweat had dried on his hands and brow The odd prickling of nape and scalp was gone-and the memory of it seemed unreal Noas afraid not of soe behavior Safely out of the woods, he could not quite recall the degree of terror that had gripped him; therefore, his actions seemed irrational

He pulled on the handbrake and switched off the engine It was eleven o’clock, and the flurry of one; only an occasional car passed on the rural two-lane blacktop He sat for ato convince hiht, and reliable

He had always taken pride in his unshakable equani else He could stay cool in the middle of a bonfire He could make hard decisions under pressure and accept the consequences

Except-he found it increasingly difficult to believe so hi’s behavior and had iive hiot out of the truck and stepped back to the side of it, where he cao bed It shoved its burly head toward hih it had snapped and barked earlier, it was an affectionate dog, and for the first ti a co back But it strained forward, nearly claerness to lick his face He laughed and ruffled its tangled coat

The retriever’s friskiness and the frenzied wagging of its tail had an unexpected effect on Travis For a long tihts of death, cul in today’s journey But this aniht that pierced Travis’s inner gloohter side froo turned away

"What was that all about back there?" he wondered aloud

The dog stopped licking hiarded him soleentle, war Travis was half- see breeze rose fro’s eyes for a clue to their special Power and appeal, but he saw nothing extraordinary about them Exceptwell, they see’s eyes usually were, ent and aware Given the short attention span of any dog, the retriever’s unwavering stare was damned unusual As the seconds ticked past and as neither Travis nor the dog broke the encounter, he felt increasingly peculiar A shiver rippled through hi uncanny was happening, that he was teetering on the threshold of an aweso shook its head and licked Travis’s hand, and the spell was broken

"Where’d you co cocked its head to the left

"Who’s your owner?"

The dog cocked its head to the right

"What should I do with you?"

As if in answer, the dog juate, ran past Travis to the driver’s door, and climbed into the pickup’s cab

When Travis peered inside, the retriever was in the passenger’s seat, looking straight ahead through the windshield It turned to hi

He got in behind the wheel, tucked the revolver under his seat "Don’t believe I can take care of you Too much responsibility, fella Doesn’t fit in with ly

"You look hungry, boy"

It woofed once, softly

"Okay, maybe I can help you that love compartmentand there’s a McDonald’s not far froers with your name on them But after thatwell, I’ll either have to let you loose again or take you to the pound"

Even as Travis was speaking, the dog raised one foreleg and hit the glove-compartment release button with a paw The lid fell open

"What the hell-"

The dog leaned forward, put its snout into the open box, and withdrew the candy in its teeth, holding the bar so lightly that the wrapping was not punctured

Travis blinked in surprise

The retriever held forth the Hershey’s bar, as if requesting that Travis unwrap the treat

Startled, he took the candy and peeled off the paper