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A trellis covered the wall immediately below herA lush trurew up the sturdy lattice to the sill, and then around one side almost to the eaves She was like so for a prince to climb up the vine and rescue her The tower that served as her prison was life itself, and the prince for whoed to be rescued was the curse of existence

Vassago said softly, "I a place

After a couple of minutes, she turned away frolass where she had stood

He ached for her return, one ina

He waited five minutes, then another five But she did not coain

At last, aware that daas closer than ever, he crept to the back of the garage onceout silently this tih with only the softest scrape of clothes against wood

Lindsey dozed in half-hour and hour naps throughout the night, but her sleep was not restful Each tih the house was cool Beside her, Hatch issued murmured protests in his sleep

Toward dawn she heard noise in the hall and rose up from her pillows to listen After ain the guest bathrooina

She settled back on her pillows, oddly soothed by the fading sound of the toilet It see fro tiood and right to hear the girl engaged in ordinary doht seem less hostile In spite of their current probleht be ina wondered why God had given people bowels and bladders Was that really the best possible design, or was He a little bit of a co up at three o’clock in thea nun on the way to the bathrooood sister that very question The nun, Sister Sarafina, had not been startled at all Regina had been too young then to kno to startle a nun; that took years of thinking and practice Sister Sarafina had responded without pause, suggesting that perhaps God wanted to give people a reason to get up in the ht so they would have another opportunity to think of Hiina had sured Sister Sarafina was either too tired to think straight or a little di about Hi on the pot

Satisfied froled down in the covers of her painted any bed and tried to think of an explanation better than the one the nun had given her years ago No more curious noises arose froht of dawn touched the panes, she was asleep again

High, decorative ere set in the big sectional doors, adht froo, without his sunglasses, that only one car, a black Chevy, was parked in the three-car garage A quick inspection of that space did not reveal any hiding place where he ht conceal hiht until the next nightfall

Then he saw the cord dangling fro stalls He slipped his hand through the loop and pulled doard gently, less gently, then less gently still, but always steadily and s open It ell oiled and soundless

When the door was all the way open, Vassago slowly unfolded the three sections of the wooden ladder that were fixed to the back of it He took plenty of time, more concerned with silence than with speed

He clie attic No doubt there were vents in the eaves, but at the ht

With his sensitive eyes, he could see a finished floor, lots of cardboard boxes, and a few small items of furniture stored under dropcloths No s Above hi boards were visible between open rafters At two points in the long rectangular cha; he did not turn on either of them

Cautiously, quietly, as if he were an actor in a slow-motion film, he stretched out on his belly on the attic floor, reached down through the hole, and pulled up the folding ladder, section by section Slowly, silently, he secured it to the back of the trapdoor He eased the door into place again with no sound but the soft spang of the big spring that held it shut, closing hie below

He pulled a few of the dropcloths off the furniture They were relatively dust free He folded the the boxes and then settled down to await the passage of the day

Regina Lindsey I aina to school Wednesday uel, Hatch was at the kitchen table, cleaning and oiling the pair of Browning 9mm pistols that he had acquired for hoo, shortly after Jinosed as terminal He had professed a sudden concern about the crih it never had been--and was not then--particularly high in their part of Orange County Lindsey had known, but had never said, that he was not afraid of burglars but of the disease that was stealing his son froht off the cancer, he secretly longed for an enes had never been used anywhere but on a firing range He had insisted that Lindsey learn to shoot alongside hiet practice in a year or two

"Do you really think that’s wise?" she asked, indicating the pistols

He was tight-lipped "Yes"

"Maybe we should call the police"

"We’ve already discussed e can’t"

"Still, it ht be worth a try"

"They won’t help us Can’t"

She kneas right They had no proof that they were in danger

"Besides," he said, keeping his eyes on the pistol as he worked a tubular brush in and out of the barrel, "when I first started cleaning these, I turned on the TV to have so news"

The small set, on a pull-out swivel shelf in the end-most of the kitchen cabinets, was off now

Lindsey didn’t ask him what had been on the news She was afraid that she would be sorry to hear it--and was convinced that she already knehat he would tell her

Finally looking up froht Tied to the four corners of his bed and beaten to death with a fireplace poker"

At first Lindsey was too shocked toShe pulled a chair out from the table and settled into it

For a while yesterday, she had hated Steven Honell as much as she had ever hated anyone in her life More Now she felt no animosity for him whatsoever Just pity He had been an insecurehis insecurity from himself behind a pretense of contemptuous superiority He had been petty and vicious, perhaps worse, but noas dead; and death was too great a punishment for his faults