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The clock ticked The cool breeze rustled the curtains

At last the person beside the bed retreated The door closed

It had been Miss Keist, after all

Treot out of bed and pulled on her robe She folded the blanket over her arm and left the room without slippers because she would make less noise if she was barefoot

She could not return to the Ackersons’ room Instead she went to the north stairs, cautiously opened the door, and stepped onto the di She listened for the sound of the Eel’s footsteps below She descended warily, expecting to encounter Sheener, but she reached the ground floor safely

Shivering as the cool tile floor iahostly glow of the streetlaes of the furniture She eased past chairs and ga down on her folded blanket behind the sofa

She dozed fitfully, waking repeatedly frohtmares The old ht: the creaking of floorboards overhead, the hollow popping of ancient pluhts and waited in the bedroom that was furnished for a child At three-thirty in theStefan moved silently behind the bedroom door A few ht, and started toward the mattress He h and partly the whi from a hostile world into its burrow

Stefan closed the door, and Sheener spun around at the sound of movement, shocked that his nest had been invaded "Whowho are you? What the hell are you doing here?"

From a Chevy parked in the shadows across the street, Kokoschka watched Stefan depart Willy Sheener’s house He waited ten ot out of the car, walked around to the back of the bungalow, found the door ajar, and cautiously went inside

He located Sheener in a child’s bedroom, battered and bloody and still The air reeked of urine, for the man had lost control of his bladder

Sori to hurt Stefan even worse than this Hiirl As soon as I understand what part she plays in his plans and why he’s ju across decades to reshape her life, I’ll put both of theh the kind of pain that no one knows this side of hell

He left Sheener’s house In the backyard he stared up at the star-spattered sky for a moment, then returned to the institute

Shortly after dawn, before the first of the shelter’s residents had arisen but when Laura felt the danger froa in her roon that she’d had an intruder during the night

Exhausted, bleary-eyed, she wondered if she had given the Eel tooShe felt so chore every McIlroy child •vas expected to perforht of what lay under it A single Tootsie Roll

That day the White Eel did not co to abduct Laura and no doubt needed his sleep

"How does a athered in a corner of McIlroy’s playground after school "I mean, doesn’t his conscience keep him awake?"

"Ruthie," Thelma said, "he doesn’t have a conscience"

"Everyone does, even the worst of us That’s how God made us"

"Shane," Thelma said, "prepare to assist ain possessed by the et"

In an uncharacteristic stroke of compassion, Mrs Bowmaine moved Tammy and Rebecca to another room and allowed Laura to bunk with Ruth and Thel the fourth bed was vacant

"It’ll be Paul McCartney’s bed," Thelma said, as she and Ruth helped Laura settle in "Anytime the Beatles are in town, Paul can come use it And I’ll use Paul!"

"So"

"Hey, I’ healthy sexual desire"

"Thelma, you’re only twelve!" Ruth said exasperatedly

"Thirteen’s next Going to have , and there’ll be so much blood this place will look like there’s been a massacre"

’Thelma!’’

Sheener did not come to work on Thursday, either His days off that ere Friday and Saturday, so by Saturday evening, Laura and the twins speculated excitedly that the Eel would never show up again, that he had been run down by a truck or had contracted beriberi

But at Sundaybreakfast, Sheener was at the buffet He had two black eyes, a bandaged right ear, a swollen upper lip, a six-inch scrape along his left jaw, and he wastwo front teeth

"Maybe he was hit by a truck," Ruth whispered as they moved forward in the cafeteria line

Other kids were co But they either feared and despised him or scorned him, so none cared to speak to him directly about his condition

Laura, Ruth, and Thelma fell silent as they reached the buffet The closer they drew to him, the more battered he appeared His black eyes were not new but a few days old, yet the flesh was still horribly discolored and puffy; initially both eyes must have been nearly swollen shut His split lip looked raw Where his face was not bruised or abraded, his usually ray Under his ure-a circus cloho had taken a pratfall down a set of stairs without knowing how to land properly and avoid injury He did not look up at any of the kids as he served them but kept his eyes on the milk and breakfast pastries He seemed to tense when Laura came before him, but he did not raise his eyes

At their table Laura and the twins arranged their chairs so they could watch the Eel, a turn of events they would not have conteuing Instead of avoiding hi to be casual about it, as if they just happened to wind up in the sa him surreptitiously Gradually it becalancing at her He looked at other kids paused in the game room to speak softly to Tammy Hinsen on one occasion, but seemed as loath to ers in an electric socket By lateRuth said, "Laura, he’s afraid of you" "Damned if he isn’t," Thelma said "Was it you who beat hi the fact that you’re a karate expert?"

"It is strange, isn’t it? Why’s he afraid of h she had thought she would have to deal with Sheener herself, her guardian had co Sheener to stay away from her

She was not sure why she was reluctant to share the story of her mysterious protector with the Ackersons They were her best friends She trusted theuardian was meant to remain a secret, that what little she knew of hiht to prattle on about hiossip