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Bell recalled the words of train conductor Dilber on the 20th Century Limited “Riker and his ward are completely on the up-and-up Always separate staterooms”

And O’Shay hiht into my life where there was darkness”

“And ill Brian be for you?”

“He saved me”

“Fifteen years ago What will he do for the rest of your life, Katherine? Keep you pure?”

Her hand shook violently “You-” Her breath came hoarsely

“You kill to please him, and he keeps you pure? Is that hoorks? Father Jack was right to pray for you”

“Why?” she wailed

“He knew in his heart, in his soul, that Brian O’Shay couldn’t save you”

“And God could?”

“So the priest believed With all his heart”

Katherine lowered the gun Her eyes rolled back in her head The gun slipped froers, and she folded to the deck as if she were a puppet whose strings had been cut

“Plimpton, daestured emphatically with his pistol

Like a viper striking reflexively at movement, Plimpton shot Bruce between the eyes and whirled back to the blur of uard had committed a fatal error

Bell fired his Browning twice Pliunun went off, the report deafening in the confined space of the yacht’s cabin A swath of pellets tore under the banquette into the legs of Lowell Falconer and his crew