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Hunting grounds

The very immensity of southern California--thousands of squareVentura County to the north and San Diego County to the south--was Vassago’s ally in his determination to acquire the pieces of his collection without arousing the interest of the police Three of his victieles County, two froe County, spread overpersons reported during that tih to alarm the public or alert the authorities

He was also abetted by the fact that these last years of the century and the ed jobs, neighbors, friends, and es with little or no concern for continuity in life As a result, there were fewer people to notice or care when any one person vanished, fewer to harass authorities into a ful response And more often than not, those who disappeared were later discovered in changed circuht trade the grind of corporate life for a job as a blackjack dealer in Vegas or Reno, and a young mother--disillusioned with the deht end up dealing cards or serving drinks or dancing topless in those sa off their past lives as if a standard middle-class existence was as round Others were found deep in the ar in cheap rat-infested hotels that rented rooions of the counterculture Because it was California, ious cood or new od or even just soe, disdaining tradition It provided for whatever lifestyle one wished to pursue Even one like Vassago’s

If he had left bodies behind, similarities in the victims and methods of murder would have linked them The police would have realized that one perpetrator of unique strength and cunning was on the prowl, and they would have established a special task force to find him

But the only bodies he had not taken to the Hell below the funhouse were those of the blonde and the private detective No pattern would be deduced from just those two corpses, for they had died in radically different ways Besides, Morton Redlow ht not be found for weeks yet

The only links between Redlow and the neo-punker were the detective’s revolver, hich the woman had been shot, and his car, out of which she had fallen The car was safely hidden in the farthest corner of the long-abandoned park garage The gun was in the Styrofoam cooler with the Oreo cookies and other snacks, at the bottom of the elevator shaft more than two floors below the funhouse He did not intend to use it again

He was unar far north into the county, he arrived at the address he had seen on the hand-written letter in the vision William X Cooper, whoever the hell he was and if he actually existed, lived in an attractive garden-apartment complex called Palm Court The name of the place and the street nun, floodlit froo drove past Palht at the corner, and parked two blocks away He didn’t want anyone to re He didn’t flat-out intend to kill this Cooper, just talk to him, ask him some questions, especially about the dark-haired, dark-eyed bitch na into a situation he did not understand, and he needed to take every precaution Besides, the truth was, these days he killed th of ti off the laina’s roo quietly to the side of her bed The hall light, falling through her door, revealed that the girl was sound asleep The sainst her chin She was breathing evenly through slightly parted lips If she dreamed, her dreams must have been pleasant

Hatch felt his heart pinch as he looked at her, for she see He found it hard to believe that he had ever been as young as Regina was just then, for youth was innocence Having been raised under the hateful and oppressive hand of his father, he had surrendered innocence at an early age in return for an intuitive grasp of aberrant psychology that had perer and brutal "discipline" were the rewards for innocent ina could not be as tender as she looked, for life had given her reasons of her own to develop thick skin and an arht be, however, they were both vulnerable, child and man In fact, at that iven a choice between her infir, the twisted and incoe had been done to soion of his brain, he would have opted for her physical impair the inexplicable escalation of his anger into blind rage, Hatch did not feel entirely in control of himself And fro exa half asout of control

I will not fail you, he pro child

He looked at Lindsey, to who Silently he made her the same promise: I will not fail you

He wondered if they were prohts out, as they lay on their separate halves of the bed, Lindsey said, "The rest of the test results should be back to Dr Nyebern toiving blood and urine saram machines At one point he had been hooked up to more electrodes than the creature that Dr Frankenstein, in those oldstorm

He said, "When I spoke to hiood I’ative, too Whatever’s happening to e fro … dead I’m healthy, I’m okay"

"Oh, God, I hope so"

"I’m just fine"

"Do you really think so?"

"Yes, I really think so, I really do" He wondered how he could lie to her so smoothly Maybe because the lie was not et some sleep

"I love you," she said

"I love you, too"

In a couple of ital clock at bedside--she was asleep, snoring softly

Hatch was unable to sleep, worrying about what he ht learn of his future--or lack of it--toray-faced and griful shadow detected in one lobe of Hatch’s brain or another, a patch of dead cells, lesion, cyst, or tuet worse