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"Reg," she said softly against the palest asole in the world" (Oneand deceiving and taking God’s naarity) "Shit, shit, shit!" (Going to be a long confession)

5

When Redlow regained consciousness, his assorted pains were so bad, they took one hundred percent of his attention He had a violent headache to which he could have testified with such feeling in a television commercial that they would have been forced to open new aspirin factories to meet the consumer response One eye was puffed half shut His lips were split and swollen; they were nue His neck hurt, and his stomach was sore, and his testicles throbbed so fiercely fro up and walking sent a paroxysh him

Gradually he remembered what had happened to him, that the bastard had taken hi on thein a chair, and for the first ti in the chair He was tied in it Ropes bound hihs, securing him to the seat His arms were fixed to the arain at the wrists

Pain had ht processes Now fear clarified the to widen his swollen left eye, he studied the darkness For a moment he assumed he was in a room at the Blue Skies Motel, outside of which he had been running a surveillance in hope of spotting the kid Then he recognized his own living roo lived in that house for eighteen years, he could identify the patterns of alow at the s, the di intensity, and the subtle but singular smell of home, which was as special and instantly identifiable to him as the odor of any particular lair to any particular wolf in the wild

He did not feelin recognition of its status as prey

For a few seconds he thought he was alone, and he began to strain at the ropes Then a shadow rose from other shadows and approached him

He could see nothing more of his adversary than a silhouette Even that seemed to e as if the kid were a polymorphous creature that could assume a variety of forms But he kneas the kid because he sensed that difference, that alienness he had perceived the first tihts ago, at the Blue Skies

"Comfortable, Mr Redlow?"

Over the past three months, as he had searched for the creep, Redlow had developed a deep curiosity about hi to puzzle out what he wanted, what he needed, how he thought After showing countless people the various photographs of the kid, and after spending more than a little of his own time in contemplation of them, he had been especially curious about what the voice would be like that ith that re like he had iined it would be, neither cold and steely like the voice of a e snarling of a beast Rather, it was soothing, honey-toned, with an appealing reverberant timbre

"Mr Redlow, sir, can you hearelse, the kid’s politeness and the natural forize for having been so rough with you, sir, but you really didn’t givein the voice indicated that the kid was being snide orHe was just a boy who had been raised to address his elders with consideration and respect, a habit he could not cast off even under circuripped by a pri that he was in the presence of a whatsoever in coh split lips, his words somewhat slurred, Morton Redlow said, "Who are you, what the hell do you want?"

"You knoho I a clue You blindsided me I haven’t seen your face What--are you a bat or soht?"

Still only a black form, the kid moved closer, to within a few feet of the chair "You were hired to find uy na on her And he is Brings his secretary to the Blue Skies every Thursday for some in-and-out"

"Well, sir, that’s a little hard for uys and cheap whores, not business executives and their secretaries"

"Maybe he gets off on the sleaziness of it, treating the girl like a whore Who the hell knows, huh? Anyway, you sure aren’t Kirkaby I know his voice He doesn’t sound anything like you Not as young as you, either Besides, he’s a piece of puff pastry He couldn’t have handled me the way you did,"

The kid was quiet for a while Just staring down at Redlow Then he began to pace In the dark Unhesitating, never bu into furniture Like a restless cat, except his eyes didn’t glow

Finally he said, "So what’re you saying, sir? That this is all just a bigalive was to convince the kid of the lie--that a guy named Kirkaby had a letch for his secretary, and a bitter wife seeking evidence for a divorce He just didn’t knohat tone to take to sell the story Withsense of which approach would beguile them and make them accept even the wildest proposition as the truth But the kid was different; he didn’t think or react like ordinary people

Redlow decided to play it tough "Listen, asole, I wish I did knoho you are or at least what the hell you look like, ’cause once this was finished, I’d come after you and bash your fuckin’ head in"

The kid was silent for a while, ht, I believe you"

Redlow sagged with relief, but sagging made all of his pains worse, so he tensed his ain

"Too bad, but you just aren’t right for h life in you"

"What’re you talking about?" Redlow asked

"Burnt out"

The conversation was taking a turn Redlow didn’t understand, which made him uneasy

"Excusetoo old for this kind of work"

Don’t I know it, Redlow thought He realized that, aside froain tested the ropes that bound hio, he would have quietly but steadily strained against the to stretch the knots Noas passive

"You’re a ot a gut on you, and you’re slow From your driver’s license, I see you’re fifty-four, you’re getting up there Why do you still do it, keep hanging in there?"

"It’s all I’ve got," Redlow said, and he was alert enough to be surprised by his own answer He had meant to say, It’s all I know

"Well, yessir, I can see that," the kid said, loo over him in the darkness "You’ve been divorced twice, no kids, and no woht now Probably hasn’t been one living with you for years Sorry, but I was snooping around the house while you were out cold, even though I kneasn’t really right of et a handle on you, try to understand what you get out of this"

Redlow said nothing because he couldn’t understand where all of this was leading He was afraid of saying the wrong thing, and setting the kid off like a bottle rocket The son of a bitch was insane You never knehat ht the fuse on a nutcase like hih some analysis of his own over the years, and now he seemed to want to analyze Redlow, for reasons even he probably could not have explained Maybe it was best to just let hiet it out of his system

"Is it money, Mr Redlow?"

"You mean, do I make any?"

"That’s what I reat car or wear expensive clothes"