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"I’ve never seen eyes like yours," Streck said, breathing hard "Gray but not like other gray eyes Deep, warm, sexy eyes"

Nora was speechless, paralyzed

"You’re very pretty, Nora Devon Very pretty And I knohat you need

I do I really do, Nora I knohat you need, and I’ive it to you,,

Her paralysis was shattered by a fit of the shakes She dropped the phone into its cradle Bending forward in bed, she felt as if she were shaking herself to pieces before the treun

She felt sile, and terribly alone

She wondered if she should call the police But ould she tell theet a big laugh out of that Her? A sex object? She was an old maid, as plain as ive him erotic drea it up or was hysterical Or they would assume she had misinterpreted Streck’s politeness as sexual interest, which is what even she had thought at first

She pulled a blue robe on over the roomy men’s pajamas that she wore, belted it Barefoot, she hurried downstairs to the kitchen, where she hesitantly withdrew a butcher’s knife froht trickled like a thin streae

As she turned the glea knife in her hand, she saw her eyes reflected in the broad, flat blade She stared at herself in the polished steel, wondering if she could possibly use such a horrible weapon against another hu even in self-defense

She hoped she would never have to find out

Upstairs again, she put the butcher’s knife on the nightstand, within easy reach

She took off her robe and sat on the edge of the bed, hugging herself and trying to stop shaking

"Why me?" she said aloud "Why does he want to pick on me?"

Streck said that she was pretty, but Nora kneas not true Her own mother had abandoned her to Aunt Violet and had returned only twice in twenty-eight years, the last time when Nora was six Her father remained unknown to her, and no other Devon relatives illing to take her in, a situation which Violet frankly attributed to Nora’s uncoh Streck said she was pretty, it could not possibly be her that he wanted No, what he wanted was the thrill of scaring and do her There were such people She read about them in books, newspapers And Aunt Violet had warned her a thousand times that if a man ever came on to her with sweet talk and smiles, he would only want to lift her up so he could later cast her down froht and hurt her all the Worse

After a while, the worst of the tre ice creahtstand She picked up the novel by Dickens and tried to involve herself once more with Pip’s tale But her attention repeatedly strayed to the phone, to the butcher’s knife-and to the open door and the second-floor hail beyond, Where she kept i she sawfollowed hierator and said, "Show ain Getdid not ot you out of those woods, away froers for you? I did I bathed you, fed you, gave you a ho, do it!"

The dog went to the aging Frigidaire, lowered its head to the bottoe in its jaws, and pulled backward, straining with its entire body The rubber seal let loose with a barely audible sucking sound The door swung open The dog quickly insinuated itself into the gap, then jumped up and braced itself with a forepaw on each side of the storage co closer

The retriever peered into the second shelf, where Travis had stored cans of beer, Diet Pepsi, and V-8 vegetable juice It plucked another Coors froerator door slip shut again as it ca with a Coors in each hand, studying the dog, he said, more to hiht you to open a refrigerator door And he could even have taught you how to recognize a certain brand of beer, how to distinguish it from other cans, and how to carry it to him But we still have soht to recognize would be the saerator? Possible, yes, but not likely Besides, I didn’t give you any coet ured a beer was exactly what I needed at the moment And it was"

Travis put one can down on the table He wiped the other on his shirt, popped it open, and took a fes He was not concerned that the can had been in the dog’sperforerms Besides, it had held each can by the bottoiene

The retriever watched him drink

When he had finished a third of the beer, Travis said, "It was almost as if you understood that I was tense, upset-and that a beer would help relaxanalytical reasoning Okay, so pets can sense their masters’ moods a lot of the time But how many pets knohat beer is, and how many realize what it can do to make the master more e? I guess you could’ve seen it so dinner, but still

His hands were shaking He drank ainst his teeth

The dog went around the red Formica table to the twin cabinet doors below the sink It opened one of these, stuck its head into the dark space, and pulled out the bag of Milk-Bone biscuits, which it brought straight to Travis

He laughed and said, "Well, if I can have a beer, I guess you deserve a treat of your own, huh?" He took the bag fro and tore it open "Do a few Milk-Boneson the floor "Serve yourself I trust you not to overindulge like an ordinary dog" He laughed again "Hell, I think I ht trust you to drive the car!"

The retriever finessed a biscuit out of the package, sat doith its hind legs splayed, and happily crunched up the treat

Pulling out a chair and sitting at the table, Travis said, "You givein those woods thisup the biscuit, the dog seemed to have lost interest in Travis for theto recall the pleasure I got from the Santa Anas when I was a boy, in the days beforeeverything urned so dark I wanted to kill a few snakes like I did when I was a kid, hike and explore and feel in tune with life like in the old days Because for a long ti stopped chewing, sed hard, and focused on Travis with undivided attention

"Lately, ht on thethe Milk-Bone biscuits behind, the retriever got up and ca directness and intensity that it had shown before