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Somewhere abovedown the stairs, whistling ai back after work? I absolutely could not move It was too late for action, too late for escape, and there was no place to hide Transfixed, I stared at the door as footsteps approached So the first few snatches of "Someone to Watch over Me" The knob turned and Dr Fraker caht of me

"Oh! Hello I didn’t expect to see you here," he said "I thought you were off talking to Kelly"

I let out a breath and found o"

"Jesus, what’s wrong? You’re as white as a ghost"

I shook my head "I was just on my way out when I heard the door slam You scared the shit out of me" My voice cracked in the middle of the sentence as if I’d just reached puberty

"Sorry I didn’t reens I watched hi out instruments Froe

"Listen, we’ve got a problem," I said

"Oh really What’s that?" Dr Fraker turned to smile atabout a lunatic Someone so crazy," she had whispered Dr Fraker’s eyes were fixed on e The penny dropped She hadn’t wanted to stay in the e She had wanted out Bobby Callahan in his naivete had thought he could help

It was there in his face and the lazy way hefrom the tools he’d assembled, he had all of the equipment he needed-nice table with a drain, hacksaws, scalpels, a working disposal just under the sink He knew anatoa, how you have to bend it backward to ease the blade into that joint

I usually cry when I’m scared and I could feel tears well up Not sorrow, but horror Given all the lies I’d told in ht then I couldn’t think of one My ht There I stood with the X ray in my hand, the truth, I’m sure, written all over my face My only hope was to act before he did andwith the knob I yanked it open and ran for the stairs, taking two at a ti back with a e held loosely in one hand What scaredslowly, as if he had all the ti lyric where he left off, a sort of tuneless rendition that didn’t do the Gershwins justice

"Like a little laood… to one who’ll watch over me…"

I reached the top of the stairs What did he know that I didn’t know? Why did he feel that this leisurely pace would suit when I was flying toward the entrance? I lowered a shoulder and slaave way I raain The entranceway, locked like this, forave him time to reach the corridor, I’d have no way out I reached the hall just as he got to the top of the stairs

Chit, chit I could hear his footsteps scratch on the tile while he sang on

"Although he irls think of as handso his ti was eht filtering in fro lot I needed a weapon Dr Fraker had his little syringe filled hatever he uy too, and once he made contact, I was in trouble

I flen the hall to the old e I snatched up a two-by-four, still running, and headed back out into the corridor, racing for the far end There had to be stairs There had to be s to smash, some way out

Behind me, from a man who couldn’t even carry a tune, I heard… "Won’t you tell him please to put on some speed, follow my lead, oh how I need, someone to watch overto analyze the situation as I ran At this rate, he could chaseI’d soon be exhausted and he wouldn’t even be breaking a sweat Not a good idea, this for and snatched for the door Locked There was just onetrapped or herded? In either case, I had the feeling he was in charge, that he’d set this all up in advance