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“Repp, I’m over here” Her voice was unsteady “On the other side of the pickup”

As Repp came around the hood of the truck, Stricklin shifted his hold on her and forced her to step froun was pointed at her head Repp stopped dead still

“The young lovers meet for their last rendezvous,” Stricklin murmured, then motioned Repp to come closer

“Then it was you Cathleen and I heard in the hangar that night,” Repp accused and sloalked forward until Strick-lin signaled him to stop

Cat stared at him in shock “Repp, you—”

“It’s no use pretending we don’t know,” he interrupted her quickly, then turned to Stricklin “You did so to that oil line, didn’t you?”

“It was fairly simple” Stricklin was very matter-of-fact about it “It’s unfortunate the two of you happened to be there that night”

“What have you got planned for us?” Repp sounded so calm that Cat wanted to scream

“It’s going to be a very tragic accident—two young lovers parked in some out-of-the-way place, unfortunately overcome by carbon monoxide A little battery acid on the exhaust hose and you have a leak that allows the fuet into the ventilation system It will be very painless, really” He seemed to offer the comment as assurance “Of course, afterwards I’ll remove the jacks from the front end—I wouldn’t want you to attempt to drive away—and I’ll reattach the door locks”

“You won’t get aith it,” Repp countered smoothly

“No one discovered the last accident—except you two”

“And Dyson—does he know?” It was thrown out as a challenge, faintly contemptuous “I suppose this was his idea and you just do the dirty work for him”

“Is that an attempt to create friction between myself and EJ?” There was amusement in Stricklin’s voice, as much amusement as ever was allowed into his voice “It won’t work Dyson has nothing to do with it” He used the gun to et in”

There was a long hesitation, as though Repp eighing his chances of rushing thethe way she was both a pawn and a shield to Stricklin

“I said, open the door,” he repeated the order