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The silence of the house was intilad, but it also felt strange It felt as if, even though she thought she was being careful and quiet, the whole house atching her The tall ceilings pressed down, the walls closed in, and she was sure she could s up from the carpets beneath her feet She looked around for cameras but saw none

She listened for footsteps

The front doors slammed shut Jazz fell to her sto down into the hallway If so for the stairs, she'd have maybe a dozen seconds to find some-where to hide

There was a tall bald ed the locks on the front door and turned, heading right into one of the rooms Jazz had not seen

She turned the corner of the balcony and headed toward the front of the house There was one long wall here with a single door, and she paused outside, listening There was so, whis-pers interspersed hat could only be sobs

Was this "that room" where the mayor alanted to be alone?

There was the tang of so in the air, like the stench of hot electrics, only more animal, h the keyhole, but it was blocked with a key on the other side

She grabbed the handle, placed her ear against the wood again, and turned If the whispering stopped, she'd have to run If its tone or volu could have turned their head to look at the door, and she would have to flee

Concentrating, listening for footsteps froe in the voice beyond the door, she turned the old ivory handle some more Felt the latch release Pushed

She blessed whoever es well oiled

The wedge of room revealed did not seem to fit the di-mensions or shape made apparent by its outside The inside walls were curved, for a perfectly circular space There were no s, and the only other opening was a closed door directly opposite Jazz The walls were painted a dull purple The ceiling was crea, and at the center of the roo

Sweat dripped froly hair and landed on his flabby stoht hand six inches above, index finger forular circles in the air He e Jazz did not know

Fiddlin', Philip had said In that rooe words seeain and again until they were even more juht appeared on the floor before hi sprayed with salt It quickly faded away to nothing, and the ht I'ic But is that it?

And then the door across the room from her opened, just a crack, and Stevie peered in He didn't see her, of that she was sure His attention was too fixed on the , eyes wide, fearful and excited at the same ti Stevie to see her He did not Instead, he pointed at the h But she realized too late that the laugh was actually a gri with his hand

The gun was black and ugly in the boy's pale hand

"No!" Jazz screamed

The ht eye and cheek erupted as Stevie shot hihteen

deeper

Mayor Bromwell tipped sideways and struck the floor, his shattered facea wet thunk as it hit Blood, fluids, and shreds of bone had spattered the floor, and more pulsed fro fro sound deep in his throat

Then he was still

Jazz looked up at Stevie, and he looked at her There was a e to flee for her own safety, because Stevie still had the gun half raised There was a blankness to his expression, as though he was looking through her to whatto shootopen, and life caain

They looked at each other for what felt like forever And then the shouting began, and the footsteps, and Stevie's ht

"Jazz, we have to --"

"What the hell --"

"Later Let's go"

Jazz turned around A door burst open on the other side of the landing, across the hallway fro at her, and even though she thought she was disguised, the recognition in the BMW man's eyes was instant and obvious "You!"

Jazz entered the deadthe key She skirted around behind the corpse, keeping to the curved wall so that she did not tread in any blood, and Stevie threw the door wide for her

"Terence," Jazz said

"He'll be okay"

"He didn't know?"

"Later" Stevie grabbed her ar a small narrow corridor toward the rear of the house He was still carrying the gun in his other hand "Go!"

Jazz ran, heart thu her back, and the implication of what she had just seen was still very far away There was no detail, though she felt it hovering around her, waiting to strike ho in that haze the ie of her dead ht," Stevie said He pushed her that way just in case she hadn't heard

The house was co to life People shouted, footsteps pounded, doors burst open She had thought the building all but deserted as she sneaked around, looking for so about, but it see

Voices caain A door was sainst a wall

Sorief --a sound that chilled Jazz She stopped, the corridor before her ending in a sashthat was half open, and Stevie shoved her hard in the back

"Through there and up!" he whispered

"But --"

"Just fucking go!"

Jazz lifted the sash higher and peered out She looked out upon landscaped gardens, and below and to her right was the roof of the large conservatory through which they had entered That seeo but probably wasn't ht, and so beside the low table in there, partly visible to Jazz through the glazed roof

Stevie placed his hand on her ass and pushed, but she slapped back at hiht:

wait!

The arden, then he seemed to speak into his sleeve He shook his head and went back into the kitchen

Stevie pushed again Soun, and Jazz didn't want anyone else dead Not even Philip, that e to death Not even him

Below thea steel platform was bolted into the wall, and to the left a hoop ladder rose eight feet to the roof Jazz went for it,quickly when she felt Stevie press up close behind her, ju quickly Surely we should be going down? she thought, but perhaps that was the point They'd be looking for people trying to escape, not those holing up on the roof

But they'd be trapped up there

Jazz reached the roof There was a sh to clierous if she happened to slip Beyond the ridge, she did not know