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As she got her desk set up, she worried about the Harrisons So in the sense that they were thieves or ene cannibals For a while she’d had an idea for a novel in which this absolute screwup girl is adopted by a couple who are child-eating cannibals, and she finds a pile of child bones in the basement, and a recipe file in the kitchen with cards that say things like LITTLE GIRL KABOB and GIRL SOUP, with instructions like "INGREDIENTS: one tender young girl, unsalted; one onion, chopped; one pound carrots, diced…" In the story the girl goes to the authorities, but they will not believe her because she’s widely known as a screwup and a teller of tall tales Well, that was fiction, and this was real life, and the Harrisons seeers

She clicked on the fluorescent desk la with the Harrisons themselves, they definitely had proble hard to hide it Maybe they weren’t able toto take the house, and all three of thee Maybe they had discovered that Mrs Harrison had a sister she’d never heard about before, an evil twin like all those people on television shoere always discovering they had Or maybe they owed et their legs broken

Regina withdrew a dictionary from the bookshelves and put it on the desk

If they had a bad proble, because she could handle that pretty well The Harrisons’ legs would get better eventually, and they’d learn an i money from loansharks Meanwhile, she could take care of theot theirthem dishes of ice cream with a little animal cookie stuck in the top of each one, and even empty their bedpans (Gross!) if it ca been on the receiving end of so much of it at various ti probleed to the Mafia, so they’ll keep e for the s broken, too At least talk it over with the guys at the Mafia and see what they say)

When the desk was fully prepared for hoina decided that she needed to be dressed ed out of her parochial-school uniforray corduroy pants and a li-sleeve cotton sweater Paja brace washer itch in a couple of places, and she wanted to take it off for the day

When she slid open thelasses

3

On yet one more tour of the downstairs, Hatch decided to turn off the lamps and chandeliers as he went With the landscape and exterior house lights all ablaze but the interior dark, he would be able to see a proithout being seen hihted den, which he had decided todesk in the glooh the double doors into the front foyer and cover the foot of the stairs to the second floor If anyone tried to enter through a denor the French doors to the rose garden, he would know at once If the intruder breached their security in another rooo upstairs, because the spill of second-floor hall light illuminated the steps He couldn’t be everywhere at once, and the den seeun and the handgun on top of the desk, within easy reach He couldn’t see therab either of the happened He practiced a few ti the foyer, then abruptly reaching out to grab the Browning, this ti, Browning, Mossberg, Mossberg Every tihtened by adrenaline, his right hand swooped through darkness and with precise accuracy ca or the stock of the Mossberg, whichever anted

He took no satisfaction in his preparedness, because he knew he could not reilant twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week He had to sleep and eat He had not gone to the shop today, and he could take off a few daysto Glenda and Lew indefinitely; sooner or later he would have to go to work

Realistically, even with breaks to eat and sleep, he would cease to be an effective watchh degree ofenterprise In tiuard or two from a private security firm, and he didn’t kno much that would cost More iuard would be

He doubted he would ever have toto coue i whatever mystical bond they shared It was like a child’s words spoken into a tin can and conveyed along a string to another tin can, where they were reproduced as dim fuzzy sounds, most of the coherency lost due to the poor quality of the conductive material but the essential tone still perceptible The currentcould not be heard in any detail, but the pri … I’ht Hatch sensed that their encounter would take place between that dead hour and dawn It was now exactly 7:46 by his watch

He withdrew his ring of car and house keys from his pocket, found the desk key that he had added earlier, opened the locked drawer, and took out the heat-darkened, sle in the lock He held thethe feel of it would, like a talisical vision and allow him to see precisely when, where, and how the killer would arrive

Mingled odors of fire and destruction--so, others o clicked off the fluorescent desk lairl’s rooht

He put his hand on the doorknob but hesitated, reluctant to leave the child behind him She was so exquisite, so vital He knew the moment he had pulled her into his arms that she was the caliber of acquisition that would coht

Stifling her cry and cutting off her breathing with one gloved hand, he had swept her into the closet and crushed her against hi arms He had held her so fiercely that she could barely squir to draw attention to her plight

When she had passed out in his arms, he had been ale to kill her right there In her closet Aers above them The scent of freshly laundered cotton and spray starch The war her neck and feel her life energy pass through his powerful hands, into hih hi to shake off that overpowering desire that he almost had killed her She fell silent and still By the tiht he had smothered her But when he put his ear to her parted lips, he could hear and feel faint exhalations A hand against her chest rewarded hi heartbeat

Now, looking back at the child, Vassago repressed the need to kill by pro before dawn Meanwhile, he must be a Master Exercise control

Control

He opened the door and studied the second-floor hallway beyond the girl’s roolow at the far end, at the head of the stairs, in front of the entrance to the ht for his colasses He still needed to squint

He must butcher neither the child nor the mother until he had both of them in the museum of the dead, where he had killed all the others ere part of his collection He knehy he had been drawn to Lindsey and Regina Mother and daughter Bitch and ain his place in Hell, he was expected to commit the same act that had won him damnation in the first place: the hter As his own ain, Lindsey and Regina had been selected

Standing in the open doorway, he listened to the house It was silent

He knew the artist was not the girl’s birthrooe, he’d had tiina’s rooe narairl had held minor roles Nevertheless, he had been drawn to her and Lindsey, and his own ed them to be suitable sacrifices