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He had offended or unsettled her, probably both That had not been his intention, and he regretted it He wasn’t sure what his intention had been Maybe just to unburden himself He had never done so before, and he didn’t knohy he’d chosen to do so tonight--except that Morton Redlow’s disappearance had scared hi since the day he had found the bodies of his wife and daughter

Instead of pouring more wine for herself, Kari rose fro to eat"

"Not hungry," he said, and heard the slur of the inebriate in his voice "Well, o out solass fro it on the nearest end table Her face was quite lovely in the aolden radiance from the web of cities below "Or call for pizza"

"How about steaks? I’ve got so"

"Sure won’t Just thaw ’erill There’s a big Gaggenau grill in the kitchen"

"Well, if that’s what you’d like"

He ht as ever, but Jonas saw a greater tenderness in her eyes than before He supposed it was the sa patients, part of what made her a first-rate pediatrician Maybe that tenderness had always been there for him, too, and he had just not seen it until now Or perhaps this was the first ti

"Thank you, Kari"

"For what?"

"For being you," he said He put his arm around her shoulders as he walked her to the kitchen

Mixed with the visions of gargantuan ures, Hatch received an array of iels The Holy Mother in prayer Christ with the Apostles at the Last Supper, Christ in Gethse

He recognized theht have collected at one time or another They were different periods and styles from those he had seen in the physician’s office, but in the sa of wires in his subconscious, but he didn’t understand what it hway Gli on both sides of an eastward-bound car Instruhts that soina in the backsplash of yellow light from that same instru wadded in her mouth and held in place by a scarf

She opens her eyes

Looking into Regina’s terrified eyes, Hatch broke fro for air "She’s alive!"

He looked at Lindsey, who shifted her gaze frohway to him "But you never said she wasn’t"

Until then he did not realize how little faith he’d had in the girl’s continued existence

Before he could take heart fro in the yellow dashboard light of the killer’s car, Hatch was hit by new clairvoyant visions that pummeled him as hard as a series of blows froures loomed out of murky shadows Human forms in bizarre positions He saonant state of putrefaction, a reen-black hand raised in horrid supplication The collection His collection He saw Regina’s face again, eyes open, revealed in the dashboard lights So ure, to ina Poor baby Don’t be afraid Okay? Don’t be afraid We’re only going to an aic Mountain? How nicely will she fit in my collection Corpses as performance art, held in place by wires, rebar, blocks of wood He saw frozen screams, silent forever Skeletal jaws held open in eternal cries for ina, sweet baby, pretty baby, such an exquisite acquisition

Hatch ca wildly at his safety harness, for it felt like binding wires, ropes, and cords He tore at the straps as a panicked victi shrouds He realized that he was shouting, too, and sucking breath as if in fear of suffocation, letting it out at once in great explosive exhalations He heard Lindsey saying his na her, but could not cease thrashing or crying out for long seconds, until he had found the release on the safety harness and cast it off

With that, he was fully back in the Mitsubishi, contact with the madman broken for the h not forgotten, not in the least forgotten He turned to Lindsey, re her fortitude in the icy waters of that ht that she had saved hiht