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Vince stripped out of his clothes

Seeing the woman’s eyes fix on hiarded the hammer, he said, "No, please, don’t worry, Dr Yarbeck I’ his suit jacket and shirt on the back of a chair "I have no sexual interest in you" He slipped out of his shoes, socks, and trousers "You won’t have to suffer that hublood all over the it at her left leg, shattering her knee Perhaps fifty or sixty haan, The Moh him He felt inhumanly alert, acutely sensitive of the color and texture of everything around hier than ever before in his life, like a god in a man’s body

He dropped the hammer and fell to his bare knees beside the bed He put his forehead on the bloodied bedspread and took deep breaths, shuddering with pleasure so intense it could almost not be borne

A couple of minutes later, when he had recovered, when he had adjusted to his new and ot up, turned to the dead woman, and bestowed kisses on her battered face, plus one in the palm of each of her hands

"Thank you"

He was so deeply ht he reater than his pity for her, and the tears would not flow

In the bathroom he took a quick shower As the hot water sluiced the soap froht about how lucky he was to have found a way to make murder his business, to be paid for what he would have done anyithout reain, he used a towel to wipe off the few things he had touched since entering the house He always remembered everyan object in the wipe-down and leaving a stray fingerprint His perfect memory was just another part of his Gift

When he let hiht had fallen

THREE

1

Throughout the early part of the evening, the retriever exhibited none of the reination He kept a watch on the dog, sometimes directly, so that engaged his curiosity

He made a dinner of bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches for himself, and he opened a can of Alpo for the retriever It liked the Alpo well enough, consuulps, but it clearly preferred his food It sat on the kitchen floor beside his chair, looking at him forlornly as he ate two sandwiches at the red Forave it two strips of bacon

Nothing about its doggy begging was extraordinary It perfor tricks It merely licked its chops, whined now and then, and repeatedly ened to elicit pity and coe a treat in the sa roo curled up on the couch beside hi to be petted and scratched behind the ears, and he obliged The dog glanced occasionally at the television but had no great interest in the prograued only by the dog He wanted to study it and encourage it to perforh he tried to think of ways to elicit displays of its astonishing intelligence, he could coe the animal’swould not cooperate in a test Most of the time it seemed instinctively to conceal its cleverness He recalled its witlessness and comical clumsiness in pursuit of the butterfly, then contrasted that behavior with the wit and agility required to turn on the patio water faucet: those actions appeared to be the work of two different anih it was a crazy idea, Travis suspected that the retriever did not wish to draw attention to itself and that it revealed its uncanny intelligence only in tiry (as when it had opened the glove compartment in the truck to obtain the candy bar), or if no one atching (as when it had turned on the water faucet)

This was a preposterous idea because it suggested that the dog was not only highly intelligent for one of its species but are of the extraordinary nature of its own abilities Dogs-all aniree of self awareness required to analyze themselves in comparison to others of their kind Co was especially bright and capable of many tricks, it would still not be aware it was different fro was, in fact, aware of such things was to credit it not only with reic, and with a facility for rational judgment superior to the instinct that ruled the decisions of all other ani its head, "are an enigma wrapped in a mystery Either that, or I’ looked at hiazed into his eyes for a moment, yawned-and suddenly jerked its head up and stared beyond him at the bookshelves that flanked the archway between the living and dining rooy expression on its face had vanished, replaced by the keen interest Travis had seen before, which transcended ordinary canine alertness

Scra off the sofa, the retriever dashed to the bookshelves It ran back and forth beneath theed voluinatively and cheaply-furnished, with upholstery chosen for durability (vinyl) or for the ability to conceal ineradicable stains (eye-searing plaids) Instead of wood, there was lots of wood-finish For, abrasion, and cigarette burns Virtually the only things in the place reflecting Travis Cornell’s own tastes and interests were the books-both paperbacks and hardcovers- that filled the shelves in the living roo appeared to be intensely curious about at least so to his feet, Travis said, "What is it, boy? What’s got your tail in an uproar?"

The retriever jumped onto its hind feet, put its forepaws on one of the shelves, and sniffed the spines of the books It glanced at Travis, then returned to its eager examination of his library

He went to the shelf in question, withdrew one of the volu had pressed its nose- Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson- and held it out "This? You’re interested in this?"

The dog studied the painting of Long John Silver and a pirate ship that adorned the dust jacket It looked up at Travis, then down at Long John Silver again After a moment, it dropped back from the shelf, onto the floor, dashed to the shelves on the other side of the archway, leaped up again, and began sniffing other books

Travis replaced Treasure Island and followed the retriever It was now applying its damp nose to his collection of Charles Dickens’s novels Travis Picked up a paperback of A Tale of Two Cities

Again, the retriever carefully studied the cover illustration as if actually trying to determine what the book was about, then looked up expectantly at Travis

Utterly baffled, he said, "The French Revolution Guillotines Beheadings Tragedy and heroism It’suhwell, it’s all about the iroups, about the need to place a far greater value on one man’s or woman’s life than on the advance returned its attention to the to

"This is nuts," Travis said, putting A Tale of Two Cities back where he’d gotten it "I’, for God’s sake!"

Dropping its big forepan to the next shelf, the retriever panted and snuffled over the literature on that row When Travis did not pull any of those books out for inspection, the dog tilted its head to get into the shelf, gently gripped a volume in its teeth, and tried to withdraw it for further exa for the book "Keep your slobber off the fine bindings, fur face This one’s Oliver Twist Another Dickens The story of an orphan in Victorian England He gets involved with shady characters, the criminal underworld, and they-"

The retriever dropped to the floor and padded back to the shelves on the other side of the archhere it continued to sniff at those voluazed up wistfully at the books that were above its head

For perhaps fiveof tremendous i, showing it the covers of a dozen novels, providing a line or two of plot description of each story He had no idea if that hat the precocious pooch wanted him to do Surely, it could not understand the synopses he provided Yet it seemed to listen raptly as he spoke He knew he less ani when it had none Still, a pre the back of his neck As their peculiar search continued, Travis half-expected so revelation at any ullible and foolish

His taste in fiction was eclectic A the volu Wicked This Way Co Goodbye Cain’s The Postway’s The Sun Also Rises Two books by Richard Condon and one by Anne

Tyler Dorothy Sayers’s Murder Must Advertise and El turned away from the books and went to the middle of the rooitated It stopped, confronted Travis, and barked three ti whined, looked at the laden shelves, walked in a circle, and peered up at the books again It seely frustrated