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Lindsey shook her head ada to work out It has to We’ve had more than our share of bad luck, bad ti to put a fa to be so fine The worst is behind us now"

3

That Thursday night, Vassago enjoyed the conveniences of a motel room

Usually he used one of the fields behind the abandoned a with bottled water and liquid soap He shaved with a straight razor, an aerosol can of lather, and a piece of a broken mirror that he had found in a corner of the park

When rain fell at night, he liked to bathe in the open, letting the downpour sluice over hihest point on the paved race of Satan and be recalled to the land of the dead by one scintillant bolt of electricity But the rainy season in southern California was over now, and ain until December If he earned his way back into the fold of the dead and damned before then, thewould be so

Once a week, sometimes twice, he rented athan he could in the priiene was important to him Filth had its powerful attractions The air and water of Hades, to which he longed to return, were filth of infinite variety But if he was tothe collection that ht win him readmission to the realm of the damned, there were certain conventions that had to be followed in order not to draw undue attention to hiree of cleanliness

Vassago always used the same motel, the Blue Skies, a seedy hole toward the southern end of Santa Ana, where the unshaven desk clerk accepted only cash, asked for no identification, and never looked guests in the eyes, as if afraid of what he ht see in theirs or they in his The area was a swao was one of the few men who did not check in with a whore in tow He stayed only an hour or two, however, which was in keeping with the duration of the average customer’s use of the accommodations, and he was allowed the sa, noisily rocked the headboards of their beds against the walls in roo his

He could not have lived there full ti of the sluts and their Johns filled hient needs and frenetic rhyth The atmosphere made it difficult to think clearly and ih the perversion and de in which he had reveled when he had been one of the fully alive

No otherhouse would have been safe They would have wanted identification Besides, he could pass a as their contact with him was casual Any motel clerk or landlord who took a deeper interest in his character and encountered him repeatedly would soon realize that he was different fro way

Anyway, to avoid drawing attention to himself, he preferred the a for him would be less likely to find him there than anywhere else Most iraveyard stillness, and regions of perfect darkness to which he could escape during daylight hours when his sensitive eyes could not tolerate the insistent brightness of the sun

Motels were tolerable only between dusk and dawn

That pleasantly warht, when he came out of the Blue Skies Motel office with his room key, he noticed a familiar Pontiac parked in shadows at the back of the lot, beyond the end unit, not nose-in to thethe office The car had been there on Sunday, the last tio had used the Blue Skies Aor just passing time while he waited for soht, features veiled by the night and the haze of reflected light on his windshield

Vassago drove the Ca arm of the L-shaped structure, parked in front, and let hie of clothes--all black like the clothes he earing

Inside the rooht He never did

For a while he stood with his back against the door, thinking about the Pontiac and thedealer working out of his car The nureater than the nu motel But where were his custoreasy wads of lasses in his jacket pocket, and went into the small bathroom It smelled of hastily sloshed disinfectant that could not le of pale lightopen the glass door, whichthe corroded track, he stepped into the stall If thehad been fixed, or if it had been divided vertically into two panes, he would have been foiled But it swung outward froripped the sill above his head, pulled hiled out into the service alley behind the ain A nearby sodiulare that scratched like windblown sand at his eyes The glasses mellowed it to a ht, all the way to the end of the block, turned right on the side street, then right again at the next corner, circling theof the L-shaped building andthe covered ay in front of the last units until he was behind the Pontiac

At the oing fro with one arlanced at the sideup on hi of the L

Vassago jerked open the door, and the guy actually started to fall out because he’d been leaning against it Vassago hit hi ram, which was better than a fist, except he didn’t hit hiuy was rocked but not finished, so he pushed up and out of the Pontiac, trying to grapple with Vassago He was overweight and slow A knee driven hard into his crotch slowed hi, and Vassago stepped back far enough to kick hio kicked hiuy was out cold, as still as the pave a startled intake of breath, Vassago turned and saw a frizzy-haired blond hooker in a uy in a cheap suit and a bad toupee They were coround At Vassago