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He looked beyond his reflection again He had no trouble finding Laura Shane a the swaddled infants, for the surname of each child was printed on a card and affixed to the back of his or her cradle
Why is there such interest in you, Laura? he wondered Why is your life so iy expended to see that you are brought safely into the world? Should I kill you now and put an end to the traitor’s scheme?
He’d be able to murder her without coh none quite so young as this No crime was too terrible if it furthered the cause to which he had devoted his life
The babe was sleeping Now and then her mouth worked, and her tiny face briefly wrinkled, as perhaps she drea
At last he decided not to kill her Not yet
"I can always eliminate you later, little one," he murmured "When I understand what part you play in the traitor’s plans, then I can kill you"
Kokoschka walked away froain for ht years
In southern California rain falls rarely in the spring, suins in December and ends in March But on Saturday the second of April, 1963, the sky was overcast, and hu open the front door of his srocery in Santa Ana, Bob Shane decided that the prospects were good for one last big downpour of the season
The ficus trees in the yard of the house across the street and the date palm on the corner were motionless in the dead air and see storm
By the cash register, the radio was turned low The Beach Boys were singing their new hit "Surfin’ USA" Considering the weather, their tune was as appropriate as "White Christ in July
Bob looked at his watch: three-fifteen
There’ll be rain by three-thirty, he thought, and a lot of it
Business had been good during the , but the afternoon had been slow At the rocery faced new, deadly competition fro to shift to a deli-style operation, offeringas possible because a deli required considerablystorm was bad he would have few custoht close early and take Laura to a et the boat, doll"
Laura was kneeling at the head of the first aisle, across froister, absorbed in her work Bob had carried four cartons of canned soup froht years old, but she was a reliable kid, and she liked to help out around the store After sta the correct price on each of the cans, she stacked the to cycle thethe new soup behind the old
She looked up reluctantly "Boat? What boat?"
"Upstairs in the apartment The boat in the closet Froet around later today"
"Silly," she said "We don’t have a boat in the closet"
He walked behind the checkout counter "Nice little blue boat"
"Yeah? In a closet? Which closet?"
He began to clip packages of Slim Jims to the metal display rack beside the snack pack crackers "The library closet, of course"
"We don’t have a library"
"We don’t? Oh Well, now that you mention it, the boat isn’t in the library It’s in the closet in the toad’s rooled "What toad?"
"Why, you mean to tell , she shook her head
"As of today we are renting a rooentlehtning flared and thunder ruh the April sky On the radio, static crackled through The Cascades’ "Rhythm of the Rain"
Laura paid no attention to the stors that scared most kids She was so self-confident and self-contained that so as a child "Why would the queen let a toad handle her business?"
"Toads are excellent business a bite Since Janet’s death, sinceto California to start over, he had put on fifty pounds He had never been a handsoht he was pleasantly round, with little chance of turning a woot rich operating a corner grocery But he didn’t care He had Laura, and he was a good father, and she loved him with all her heart, as he loved her, so what the rest of the world ht think of him was of no consequence "Yes, toads are excellent businessmen indeed And this toad’s family has served the crown for hundreds of years In fact he’s been knighted Sir Thohter than before The thunder was louder as well
Having finished stocking the soup shelves, Laura rose from her knees and wiped her hands on the white apron that she earing over T-shirt and jeans She was lovely; with her thick, brown hair and large, brown eyes, she boreresemblance to her ?"
"Six pence a week"
"Is he in the room next to iggled again "Well, he better not snore"
"He said the same of you"
A battered, rusted Buick pulled up in front of the store, and as e driver’s door opened, a third thunderbolt blasted a hole in the darkening sky The day was filled withthe street outside, sprayed lavalike over the parked Buick and the passing cars The acco froh the stor an earth quake
"Wow!" Laura said, h no rain had fallen yet, wind suddenly swept in fro leaves and litter before it
Theat the sky in astonish pierced the clouds, seared the air, cast their blazing ies in s and automobile chrome, and with each flash cahtning spooked Bob When he called to Laura - "Honey, get away from the s"-she rushed behind the counter and let him put an arm around her, probably more for his comfort than hers
Theout at the fulminous sky, he said, "You see that, man? Whew!"
The thunder faded; silence returned