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"I been following you since lunch, and I know you got three of the in Acapulco-"

"Four," Haines said, and in spite of his terror a visible pride surfaced "That Mercedes I’s to Giselle, the sweetest little-"

"You’re using one woman’s car to cheat on her with three others?"

Haines nodded and tried to sh his ruined nose "I’ve alwayshad this ith the ladies"

"For God’s sake!" Vince was appalled "Don’t you realize these aren’t the sixties or seventies any ot a price now Steep price Haven’t you heard about herpes, AIDS, all that stuff?" Ad the pentothal, he said, "You must be a carrier for every venereal disease known tostupidly at him, Haines at first looked baffled and then was deep in a pentothal sleep Under the drug, he confirmed all that he had already told Vince about Banodyne and the Francis Project

When the drug wore off, Vince used the Taser on Haines, just for the fun of it, until the batteries wore out The scientist twitched and kicked like a half-crushed water bug, back bowed, digging at the moss with his heels and head and hands

When the Taser was of no further use, Vince beat hi the corkscrew to the space between two ribs, angling it up into the beating heart

Ssssnap

Throughout, a sepulchral silence hung over the rain forest, but Vince sensed a thousand eyes watching, the eyes of wild things He believed that the hidden watchers approved of what he had done to Haines because the scientist’s lifestyle s, the natural order that all the creatures of the jungle obeyed

He said, "Thank you," to Haines, but he did not kiss the man Not on the y was as invigorating and welcome as anyone’s, but his body and spirit were unclean

4

Nora went straight home from the park The mood of adventure and the spirit of freedo and the early afternoon could not be recaptured Streck had sullied the day

Closing the front door behind her, she engaged the regular lock, the dead-bolt lock, and the brass safety chain She went through the downstairs roohtly shut at all the s to prevent Arthur Streck fro around But she could not tolerate the resultant darkness, so she turned on every lamp in every room In the kitchen, she closed the shutters and checked the lock on the back door

Her contact with Streck had not only terrified her but had left her feeling dirty More than anything, she wanted a long, hot shower

But her legs were suddenly shaky and weak, and she was seized by a spell of dizziness She had to grab hold of the kitchen table to steady herself She knew she would fall if she tried to climb the stairs just then, so she sat down, folded her arms on the table, put her head in her arms, and waited until she felt better

When the worst of the dizziness passed, she reerator, and she decided a drink ht the brandy-Remy Martin-after Violet had died because Violet had not approved of any stronger drink than partially fermented apple cider As an act of rebellion, Nora had poured a glass of brandy for herself when she had come home from her aunt’s funeral She had not enjoyed it and had elass down the drain But now it see

First she went to the sink and washed her hands repeatedly under the hottest water she could tolerate, using both soap and then a lot of Ivory dishwashing liquid, scrubbing away every trace of Streck When she was done, her hands were red and looked raw

She brought the brandy bottle and a glass to the table She had read books in which characters had sat doith a fifth of booze and a heavy load of despair, determined to use the former to wash away the latter Sometimes it worked for them, so maybe it would work for her If brandy could iinally, she was prepared to drink the whole damn bottle

But she did not have it in her to be a lush She spent the next two hours sipping at a single glass of Rehts of Streck, she was relentlessly tormented by memories of Aunt Violet, and when she tried not to think of Violet, she was right back to Streck again, and when she forced herself to put both of theht of Travis Cornell, the ave her no coentle, polite, concerned-and he had gotten rid of Streck But he was probably just as bad as Streck If she gave hie of her the sa to do Aunt Violet had been a tyrant, twisted and sick, but increasingly it see with other people

Ah, but the dog That was a different story She had not been afraid of the dog, not even when he had dashed toward the park bench, barking ferociously Somehow, she knew that the retriever-Einstein, his er was focused on Streck Clinging to Einstein, she’d felt safe, protected, even with Streck still loo of her own Violet had abhorred the very idea of house pets But Violet was dead, forever dead, and there was nothing to prevent Nora fro of her own

Except

Well, she had the peculiar notion that no other dog would give her the profound feeling of security she had gotten from Einstein She and the retriever had enjoyed instant rapport

Of course, because the dog rescued her fro qualities to him that he did not possess Naturally, she would view hiorously she tried to disabuse herself of the notion that Einstein was only a dog like any other, she still felt he was special, and she was convinced no other dog would give her the degree of protection and colass of Rehts of Einstein, did in fact lift her spirits More iave her the courage to go to the kitchen telephone with the determination to call Travis Cornell and offer to buy his retriever After all, he had told her he’d owned the dog only one day, so he couldn’t be deeply attached to it For the right price, he h the directory, found Cornell’s nu "Hello?"

On hearing his voice, she realized that any atteive him a lever hich he could atteotten that he erous as Streck

"Hello?" he repeated

Nora hesitated

"Hello? Is anyone there?"

She hung up without saying a word

Before she spoke with Cornell about the dog, she needed to devise an approach that would so he could make a move on her if, in fact, he was like Streck

5

When the telephone rang at a fewa can of Alpo into Einstein’s bowl The retriever atching with interest, licking his chops but waiting until the last scraps had been scraped fro restraint

Travis went for the phone, and Einstein went for the food When no one answered Travis’s first greeting, he said hello again, and the dog glanced away froot no answer, he asked if anyone was on the line, which see padded across the kitchen to look up at the receiver in Travis’s hand

Travis hung up and turned away, but Einstein stood there, gazing at the wall phone

"Probably a wrong nuain

"Or kids thinking they’re being clever"