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“Bethany? You’re ill, Bethany Let me help you”

The killer was in the hallway behind her

“Not er now, Bethany The hallucinations must be terrible But soon you’ll sleep and then it will all be over”

She focused intently on the triangle oflines drew her and calles was a strong, if temporary, antidote to the hallucinations

She reached the fourth door, went through it and paused in theto think There was a small office in here somewhere And inside the office there was a book She had been looking at it just this afternoon It was a very important book because it contained a picture of her killer She had to mark the picture for Deke and Thomas

The shelves of books around her curved and warped theered through the twisting corridors to the office

The little book was lying on the desk, just as she reot it open and stared helplessly at the first page The picture was here somewhere She had to find it quickly The killer was halfway down the hall

She turned pages, taking refuge once more in the comfort of numbers

Seventy-nine

Eighty

Eighty-one There it was A picture of the killer

There was a pen next to the book After three atte able to write a nah eye-hand coordination left to draw a shaky circle around the picture on page eighty-one

She paused when she finished, concentrating hard

There was so else she wanted to do just to make sure Deke and Thomas understood

The envelope, please

She smiled with satisfaction as the hts

The envelope was in the purse draped over her shoulder She got it out Managed to slip it inside the book

Nohat?

Hide the book and the envelope She could not risk having the killer discover them

“I knohere you are, Bethany Did you think you could hide in the library?”

She looked around, searching for a place in which to conceal the book and the envelope

The large, old-fashioned wooden card catalog stood against one wall, the rows of little drawers neatly organized in lovely straight lines

Perfect

“Mirror, mirror on the wall,” the killer chanted from the door of the library “Who is the smartest one of all? Not you, Bethany Not Sebastian Eubanks, either I’m the smartest one of all, Bethany”

She ignored the taunting and wedged the book with the envelope inside into the hiding place Deke and Thomas would find it sooner or later