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His confidence had been increasing slowly ever since he had gotten past the events of Thursday night and Friday , when he had dreamed of the blonde’s murder and, later, had actually followed the trail of the killer to the Route 133 off-rao Freeway The weekend had been uneventful The day just past, enlivened and uplifted by Regina’s arrival, had been delightful Then he had seen the newspaper piece about Cooper, and had lost control

He hadn’t told Lindsey about the stranger’s reflection that he had seen in the den ht have been sleepwalking, half awake, half dreae in the mirror was an hallucination of one kind or another A healthy, undaed brain didn’t hallucinate He hadn’t shared that terror with her because he kneith the receipt of the test results too around

Unable to sleep, he began to think about the newspaper story again, even though he didn’t want to chew on it any hts away from Williaht have obsessively probed at a sore tooth with his tongue It al forced to think about the truck driver, as if a gianthis attention inexorably in that direction Soon, to his diser exploded into fury and a hunger for violence so intense that he had to fist his hands at his sides and clench his teeth and struggle to keep froe

From the banks of arden aparto learned that Williaht He followed the breeze-way into the courtyard, which was filled with palhts to please him, and he climbed an exterior staircase to the covered balcony that served the second-floor units of the two-story coht Palh it was a few hts were on in the Cooper aparto could hear a television turned low

Theto the right of the door was covered with Levolor blinds The slats were not tightly closed Vassago could see a kitchen illue hood

To the left of the door a largerlooked onto the balcony and courtyard fro rooap, arecliner with his feet up in front of the television His head was tilted to one side, his face toward the , and he appeared to be asleep A glass containing an inch of golden liquid stood beside a half-empty bottle of Jack Daniel’s on a s of cheese puffs had been knocked off the table, and soe contents had scattered across the bile-green carpet

Vassago scanned the balcony to the left, right, and on the other side of the courtyard Still deserted

He tried to slide open Cooper’s living-room , but it was either corroded or locked He ain, toward the kitchen , but he stopped at the door on the way and, without any real hope, tried it The door was unlocked He pushed it open, went inside--and locked it behind him

The o quietly pulled the drapes all the way shut across the big living-roo on the balcony, would be able to look inside

Already assured that the kitchen, dining area, and living rooh the bathroom and two bedrooe) that comprised the rest of the apartment The man in the recliner was alone

On the dresser in the bedroo of keys In the wallet he found fifty-eight dollars, which he took, and a driver’s license in the naraph on the license was of the er and, of course, not in a drunken stupor

He returned to the living roo an informative little chat with him Who is Lindsey? Where does she live?

But as he approached the recliner, a current of anger shot through him, too sudden and causeless to be his own, as if he were a human radio that received other people’s eer that had suddenly struck him while he had been with his collection in the funhouse hardly an hour ago As before, he opened hie, wondering if he would receive visions, as he had on that previous occasion But this tier flared too abruptly into insensate fury, and he lost control Frorabbed the Jack Daniel’s by the neck of the bottle

Lying rigid in his bed, hands fisted so tightly that even his blunt fingernails were gouging painfully into his pal that his er had been like opening a door just a hairline crack but wide enough for sorip and tear it off its hinges He felt so into him, a force without fore Its fury was that of the hurricane, the typhoon, beyond mere human dimensions, and he knew that he was too s into him He felt as if he would explode, shatter as if he were not a urine

The half-full bottle of Jack Daniel’s whacked the side of the sleeping man’s head with such iun blast Whiskey and sharp fraglass showered up, rained down, splattered and clinked against the television set, the other furniture, and the walls The air was filled with the velvety aro it was the scent of blood, for the gashed and battered side of Cooper’s face was bleeding copiously

TheHe had been hao was left with just the neck of the bottle in his hand It terlass that dripped bourbon andhis grip, he raised the weapon above his head and brought it down, letting out a fierce hiss of rage, and the glass serpent bit deep into William Cooper’s face

The volcanic wrath that erupted into Hatch was unlike anything he had ever experienced before, far beyond any rage that his father had ever achieved Indeed, it was nothing he could have generated within himself for the same reason that one could not manufacture sulfuric acid in a paper cauldron: the vessel would be dissolved by the substance it was required to contain A high-pressure lava flow of anger gushed into him, so hot that he wanted to scream, so white-hot that he had no time to scream Consciousness was burned away, and he fell into a er nor terror

Vassago realized that he was shouting ordless, savage glee After a dozen or twenty blows, the glass weapon had utterly disintegrated He finally, reluctantly dropped the short fragrip Snarling, he threw hi it over and rolling the dead reen carpet He picked up the end table and pitched it into the television set, where Hu a couple of ball bearings in his leathery hand, talking about strawberries The screen iart was transfornited new fires of destructive frenzy in Vassago He kicked over a coffee table, tore two K Mart prints off the walls and slass out of the frames, swept a collection of cheap cera better than to have continued fro all the dishes out of the kitchen cabinets and sht shards, seizing the food in the refrigerator and heaving it against the walls, haainst another until everything was broken and splintered, but he was halted by the sound of a siren, distant now, rapidly drawing nearer, the h the hts He headed for the door, then swung away froht have co fro room, back the short hall, to thein the master bedroom, where he pulled aside the drapes and looked onto the roof over the building-long carport An alleyway, bordered by a block wall, lay beyond He twisted open the latch on the double-hung , shoved up the botto carport, rolled to the edge, fell to the pavement, and landed on his feet as if he were a cat He lost his sunglasses, scooped theain He sprinted left, toward the back of the property, with the siren louder now, much louder, very close When he cah concrete-block wall that ringed the property, he swiftly cla up any porous surface, and then he was over, into another alleyway serving carports along the back of another apartment co a route through the maze by sheer instinct, and came out on the street where he had parked, half a block froine, and drove away fro so hard that he steae of bourbon, blood, and perspiration, he was tremendously excited, so profoundly satisfied by the violence he had unleashed that he pounded the steering wheel and let out peals of laughter that had a shrieky edge