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"Go Away Little Girl!"
Connie grimaced "That wasn’t Elvis, you peabrain! That was Steve Lawrence Surrender"
"Stay Away"
"Surrender"
Harry blinked sweat out of his eyes and studied Connie with incomprehension He had never felt less in control of a situation
So down between her and the lunatic, but Harry didn’t have a clue as to what it was
"1 Don’t Care If the Sun Don’t Shine"
"Surrender"
Suddenly Harry remembered that "Surrender" was the title of a Presley classic
"Stay Away" He thought that
Connie slipped into one of the aisles, out of Harry’s sight, as she called out: "It’s Now or Never"
"What’dlSay?"
Moving away into the maze, Connie answered the perp with two Presley titles: "Surrender I Beg of You"
"1 Feel So Bad"
After a hesitation, Connie responded: "Tell Me Why"
"Don ’t Ask Me Why"
A dialogue had been established In Presley song titles Like some bizarre television quizshow contest with no prizes for correct answers but plenty of peril for wrong ones
In a crouch, Harry eased into a different aisle from the one that Connie had taken A spider’s rapped his face He pulled it off and crept deeper into the uarded shadows
Connie resorted to a previously used title: "Surrender"
"Stay Away"
"Are You Lonesoht?"
After a hesitation, the perp adet a fix on the voice Sas really pouring off hi to his hair and tickled his brow, his mouth tasted like the bottom of a pestle in Frankenstein’s laboratory, and he felt as if he’d stepped out of reality into so addict’s dark hallucinations
"Let Yourself Go," Connie advised
"I Feel So Bad," the perp repeated
Harry knew he shouldn’t be so disoriented by the peculiar twists this pursuit kept taking These were the I 990s, after all, an age of unreason if ever there had been one, when the bizarre was so common as to establish a new definition of normality Like the holdupconvenience store clerks not with guns but with syringes full of AIDStainted blood
Connie called to the perp, "Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear," which seetitle conversation
But the perp ca and suspicion: "You Don’t Know Me"
Connie needed only a few seconds to find the right followup: "Doncha Think It’s Time?"
And talk about bizarre: Bichard ht Stalker, was visited regularly in prison by a strea, a roo, cooking parts of his victierator, and neighbors said, well, yeah, there had been bad s from his aparthpowered electric saws, but the screauy seemed so nice, he seemed to care about people The 1990s No decade like It
"Too Much, " the perp finally said, evidently disbelieving Connie’s professed roenuine syly whiny, echoed off the cobwebbed rafters as he admitted his lack of selfestee Around Your Neck," Connie said, roh the ht sight of him
The perp didn’t reply
Harry kept on theeach shadowy niche and byway, but feeling useless He had never ie century, he ht have to be an expert on rock-’n’-roll trivia to be an effective cop
He hated crap like this, but Connie loved it She e dark and wild in her
Harry reached an aisle that was perpendicular to his It was desertedxcept for a couple of naed o, one atop the other Hunkered down, shoulders hunched protectively, HarryAround Your Neck," Connie called out again fro because he thought it was an offer that a guy should h definitely a ’90s ender roles
"Treat Me Nice," Connie said
No answer
"Love Me Tender," Connie said
The perp still did not respond, and Harry was alarue The creep et a better, final fix on her
Harry was about to shout a warning when an explosion shook the building He froze, crossing his arms protectively over his face But the blast had not occurred in the attic; there had been no flash
Froony and terror, confused voices, shouts of anger
Evidently other cops had entered the lower rooave access to the attic, and the perp had heard theruesouy trying to keep his intestines fro out of his belly
He knew that he and Connie were in a rarethe saive a dahts, excessive use of force, or the proper way of doing things He just wanted the bastard dead