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"By God, fur face, you have been well nah Nora usually ate dinner no earlier than seven, she was hungry The iven her an appetite that even thoughts of Streck could not spoil She didn’t feel like cooking, so she prepared a platter of fresh fruit and some cheese, plus a croissant heated in the oven

Nora usually ate dinner in her rooazine or book, because she was happiest there Now, as she prepared a platter to take upstairs, the telephone rang

Streck

It must be hi to the phone Even after it stopped, she leaned against the kitchen counter, feeling weak, waiting for the ringing to start again

7

When Nora Devon did not answer her telephone, Travis was ready to go back to the evening news on TV, but Einstein was still agitated The retriever leaped up against the counter, pawed at the directory, pulled it to the floor again, took it in his jaws, and hurried out of the kitchen

Curious about the dog’s nextat the front door with the phone book still in his mouth

"What now?"

Einstein put one paw on the door

"You want to go out?"

The dog whined, but the sound wasto do with the phone book out there? Bury it like a bone? What’s up?"

Although he received answers to none of his questions, Travis opened the door and let the retriever out into the golden, late-afternoon sunshine Einstein dashed straight to the pickup parked in the driveway He stood at the passenger door, looking back hat ht have been impatience

Travis walked to the truck and looked down at the retriever He sighed "I suspect you want to go somewhere, and I suspect you don’t have inthe directory, Einstein juainst the door of the truck and stood there, looking over his shoulder at Travis He barked

"You want o there Is that it?"

One woof

"Sorry," Travis said "I know you liked her, but I’m not in the market for a woman Besides, she’s not my type I already told you that And I’m not her type, either Fact is, I have a hunch that nobody’s her type

The dog barked

’’NO

The dog dropped to the ground, rushed at Travis, and took hold of one leg of his jeans again

"No," he said, reaching down and grabbing Einstein by the collar "There’s no point chewing up o, twisted out of his grasp, and sprinted to the long bed of brightly bloo led flowers onto the lawn behind hi now, for God’s sake?"

The dog kept digging industriously, working his way through the bed, back and forth, apparently bent on totally destroying it

"Hey, stop that!" Travis hurried toward the retriever

Einstein fled to the other end of the front yard and corass

Travis went after him

Einstein escaped onceout rass, then to the birdbath, which he tried to undermine, then back to as left of the impatiens

Unable to catch the retriever, Travis finally halted, gasped for breath, and shouted, "Enough!"

Einstein stopped digging in the flowers and raised his head, snaky trailers of coral-red io," Travis said

Einstein dropped the flowers and came out of the ruins, onto the laarily

"No tricks," Travis proo see the wo to say to her"

8

With her dinner platter in one hand and a bottle of Evian in the other, Nora went along the downstairs hallway, co in every roo, she used her elbow to flick the switch for the second-floor hall lights She would need to include a lot of light bulbs in her next grocery order because she intended to leave all the lights burning day and night for the foreseeable future It was an expense she did not in the least begrudge

Still buoyed by the brandy, she began to sing softly to herself as she headed for her rooh the door Streck was lying on the bed

He grinned and said, "Hi, babe"

For an instant she thought he was a hallucination, but when he spoke she kneas real, and she cried out, and the platter fell fro fruit and cheese across the floor

"Ohup and swinging his legs over the edge of the bed He was still wearing his running shorts, athletic socks, and running shoes; nothing else "But there’s no need to clean it up now There’s other business to take care of first I been waiting a long ti about yougetting Primed for you" He stood "And now it’s time to teach you what you’ve never learned"

Nora could not move Could not breathe

Hebefore she did He had forced entry, leaving no trace of a break-in, and he’d been waiting here on the bed all the ti brandy in the kitchen There was so up here that was creepier than anything else he had done, waiting and teasing hi to her putter around downstairs in ignorance of his presence

When he was finished with her, would he kill her?