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Hatch still had the iun in his hand, withdrawn fro so , they had not yet reached the spot at which the revolver had been fired

Traffic was creeping bumper-to-bumper not because the rush hour was heavier than usual but becauseto stare at the police It hat the radio traffic reporters called "gawkers’ block"

"He was really barreling along," Hatch said

"In heavy fog"

"And sunglasses"

"Stupid," Lindsey said

"No This guy’s smart"

"Sounds stupid to me"

"Fearless" Hatch tried to settle back into the skin of the ht about the killer was totally alien and firmly resisted analysis "He’s extremely cold … cold and dark inside … he doesn’t think like you or led to find words to convey what the killer had felt like "Dirty" He shook his head "I don’tlike that It’s ave up "Anyway, he’s utterly fearless Nothing scares hi can hurt him But in his case that’s not the saht"

"What’re you saying--that he’s invulnerable?"

"No Not exactly But nothing you could do to hied herself "You make him sound … inhuman"

At the moment the police search for evidence was concentrated in the quarter of a ot past that activity, traffic began to ht hand seereater substance He could alainst his pallanced at her, she winced He saw her clearly, but he could also see, in memory, the face of the blonde as she had looked up from her purse with too little reaction tiht here, two shots, fast as I … as he could pull the trigger," Hatch said, shuddering because the memory of violence was far easier to recapture than were theholes in her" He could see it so clearly "Jesus, it ful" He was really into it "The way she tore open And the sound like thunder, the end of the world" The bitter taste of stomach acid rose in his throat "She was thrown back by the iainst the door, instantly dead, but the door flew open He wasn’t expecting it to fly open He wanted her, she was part of his collection now, but then she was gone, out into the night, gone, rolling like a piece of litter along the blacktop"

Caught up in the dream memory, he rammed his foot down on the brake pedal, as the killer had done

"Hatch, no!"

A car, then another, then a third, swerved around the, narrowly avoiding a collision

Shaking hiain, back into the traffic flow He are of people staring at him from other cars

He didn’t care about their scrutiny, for he had picked up the trail as if he were a bloodhound It was not actually a scent that he followed It was an indefinable so that led him on, maybe psychic vibrations, a disturbance in the ether e just as a shark’s fin would carve a trough in the surface of the sea, although the ether had not repaired itself with the alacrity of water

"He considered going back for her, kneas hopeless, so he drove on," Hatch said, aware that his voice had beco secrets that were painful to reveal

"Then I walked into the kitchen, and you werethe edge of the counter tight enough to crack the granite I thought you were having a heart attack--"

"Drove very fast," Hatch said, accelerating only slightly hiet away before the traffic behind hi that he was noton what the killer had done, Lindsey said, "You’re re more than you dreamed, past the point when I ca," he said huskily

"Then what?"

"Sensing …"

"Now?"

"Yes"

"How?"

"Somehow" He simply could not explain it better than that "Somehow," he whispered, and he followed the ribbon of paveely flat expanse of land, which see sun, as if the killer cast a shadow vastly larger than hiered behind hihty-five … almost ninety miles an hour … able to see only a hundred feet ahead" If any traffic had been there in the fog, the killer would have crashed into it with cataclyset farther away than that … kept going … going…"

He almost didn’t slon in time to make the exit for State Route 133, which becauna Beach At the last moment he hit the brakes too hard and whipped the wheel to the right The Mitsubishi slid as they departed the interstate, but he decreased speed and iot off here?" Lindsey asked

"Yes"

Hatch followed the new road to the right

"Did he go into Laguna?"

"I … don’t think so"

He braked to a con He pulled onto the shoulder Open country lay ahead, hills dressed in crisp brown grass If he went straight through the crossroads, he’d be heading into Laguna Canyon, where developers had not yet ed to raze the wilderness and erect more tract homes Miles of brushland and scattered oaks flanked the canyon route all the way into Laguna Beach The killer also ht Hatch looked in each direction, searching for … for whatever invisible signs had guided him that far

After a moment, Lindsey said, "You don’t knohere he went from here?"

"Hideaway"

"Huh?"

Hatch blinked, not sure why he had chosen that word "He went back to his hideaway … into the ground…"

"Ground?" Lindsey asked With puzzlement she surveyed the sere hills

"… into the darkness …"

"You round somewhere?"

"… cool, cool silence …"

Hatch sat for a while, staring at the crossroads as a few cars came and went He had reached the end of the trail The killer was not there; he knew thately, the sweet chocolate taste of Oreo cookies, as intense as if he had just bitten into one

9

At The Cottage in Laguna Beach, they had a late breakfast of hos, bacon, and buttered toast Since he had died and been resuscitated, Hatch didn’t worry about things like his cholesterol count or the long-terarette smoke He supposed the day would coain, whereupon he would return to a diet high in fruits and vegetables, scowl at smokers who blew their filth his way, and open a bottle of fine ith a ri alcohol At thelife too ain--which hy he was determined not to let the dreams and the death of the blonde push hi effect Each bite of egg yolk soothed his nerves