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By 6:40, Frye decided that the young woman had neither a husband nor a live-in boyfriend If a man had shared the house with her, he most likely would have been hoave it another five minutes

The Benny Goodot out of the Dodge and crossed the street to her house

The bungaloas on a narrow lot, hbors to suit Bruno’s purpose But at least there were a greatthe property lines; they helped screen the front porch of theeyes of those who lived on both sides of her Even so, he would have toa commotion, before she had a chance to scream

He went up t steps, onto the veranda The floorboards squeaked a bit He rang the bell

She answered the door, s uncertainly "Yes?"

A safety chain was fixed to the door It was heavier and sturdier than most chains, but it was not one-tenth as effective as she probably thought it was A man much smaller than Bruno Frye could have torn this one froainst the door Bruno only needed to ram his massive shoulder into the barrier once, hard, just as she smiled and said,

"Yes?" The door exploded inward, and splinters flew into the air, and part of the broken safety chain hit the floor with a sharp ringing sound

He leaped inside and threw the door shut behind hi in

The woman was on her back, on the floor The door had knocked her down She was still wearing her white unifors

He dropped to one knee beside her

She was dazed She opened her eyes and tried to look up at him, but she needed a moment to focus

He put the point of the knife at her throat "If you scream," he said, "I’ll cut you wide open Do you understand?"

Confusion vanished froan to tremble Tears formed at the corners of her eyes, shimmered but didn’t spill out

Impatiently, he pricked her throat with the point of the blade, and a tiny bead of blood appeared

She winced

"No screa," he said "Do you hear ood?"

"Please Please, don’t hurt me"

"I don’t want to hurt you," Frye said "If you’re quiet, if you’re nice, if you cooperate with me, then I won’t have to hurt you But if you screaet away from me, I’ll cut you to pieces You understand?"

In a very s to be nice?"

"Yes"

"Do you live alone here?"

"Yes"

"No husband?"

"No"

"Boyfriend?"

"He doesn’t live here"

"You expecting hi to me?"

"It’s the truth I swear"

She was pale under her dusky co to me," he said, "I’ll cut your pretty face to ribbons"

He raised the blade, put the point against her cheek She closed her eyes and shuddered

"Are you expecting anyone at all?"

"No"

"What’s your name?"

"Sally"

"Okay, Sally, I want to ask you a few questions, but not here, not like this"

She opened her eyes Tears on the lashes One trickling down her face She sed hard "What do you want?"

"I have some questions about Katherine"

She frowned "I don’t know any Katherine"

"You know her as Hilary Thomas"

Her frown deepened "The woman in Westwood?"

"You cleaned her house today"

"ButI don’t know her I’ve never met her"

"We’ll see about that"

"It’s the truth I don’t know anything about her"

"Perhaps you know more than you think you do"

"No Really"

"Co hard to keep a smile on his face and a friendly note in his voice

"Let’s go into the bedroo beca to rape me, aren’t you?"

"No, no"

"Yes, you are"

Frye was barely able to control his anger He was angry that she was arguing with hiry that she was so damned reluctant to move He wished that he could ram the knife into her belly and cut the information out of her, but, of course, he couldn’t do that He wanted to knohere Hilary Thoet that inforth of heavy wire: bend her repeatedly back and forth until she snapped, bend her one ith threats and another ith cajolery, alternate minor violence with friendliness and syht be willing to tell hi, she was employed by Hilary Thomas, therefore by Katherine, and was consequently part of Katherine’s plot to kill him This woman was not merely an innocent bystander She was Katherine’s hand dead He expected her to hide inforly

"I proently "But while I question you, I want you to be flat on your back, so that it’ll be harder for you to try to get up and run I’ll feel safer if you’re on your back So if you’re going to have to lay down for a while, you ht as well do it on a nice softof your comfort, Sally"

"I’m comfortable here," she said nervously

"Don’t be silly," he said, "Besides, if so the bell

heThe bedroom will be ot to her feet

He held the knife on her

They went into the bedroolad that she had a glass of good whiskey as she sat on the couch in Joshua Rhinehart’s office and listened to the attorney’s story He told her and Tony about the er who had left the bizarre letter in the safe-deposit box--and about his own growing uncertainty as to the identity of the deadto exhume the body?" Tony asked

"Not yet," Joshua said "There are a couple of things I’ve got to look into first If they check out, I h answers so that it’s not really necessary to open the grave"

He told thee in San Francisco, and he reconstructed his recent conversation with Latham Hawthorne

In spite of the warm room and the heat of the whiskey, Hilary was chilled to the bone "This Hawthorne sounds as if he belongs in an institution hihed "Sometimes I think if we put all the crazies into institutions, there’d hardly be anyone left on the outside"