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239 lines
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<h1>23</h1>
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<p>At Alan Scott's house I found him sitting at the kitchen table, staring at the wall in what could have been blank bewilderment. The large glass of whisky shook in both hands, as if it had a life of its own. Janet had been pale-faced with worry when she opened the door and motioned me to come in. Now she sat in the corner of the kitchen, wringing her hands. The children were nowhere in sight.</p>
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<p>He looked up as I sat down at the table and seemed to spend a few moments struggling for recognition. Something flashed in his eyes and he seemed to start, as if coming out of a daydream.</p>
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<p>'Tell me. Was I right?'</p>
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<p>I nodded slowly.</p>
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<p>'I told you. It's crazy. It cant happen!'</p>
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<p>'I can't figure it out either.'</p>
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<p>
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'It's that bloody road. That bypass. That's what's done it.' His voice sounded close to hysteria. 'The bastards have buried us good and proper. That's what they've been up to all this time. They just want to hem us in. I knew this would happen.'</p>
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<p>All the worlds tumbled out in that strained, cracking voice. Alan brought his hands up and took a big gulp of whisky and clattered the glass back down on the table. I saw Janet wince in alarm.</p>
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<p>'Maybe it's got nothing to do with the road,' I ventured.</p>
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<p>'Must be,' he shot back. 'That's why they built it. So everybody would go past Arden. But they're not content with that. Oh no, not them. They want to shut us in. They've fixed it so we can't get out and tell people what's going on.'</p>
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<p>He took another big swallow that would have made my eyes water. I don't know how many he'd had, but I would have bet he'd had a lot. He sounded scared and angry and very close to the edge, but his words, rising on a wave of hysteria, didn't sound like whisky talk.</p>
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<p>He suddenly lurched to his feet, in a jerk that toppled the chair. He didn't seem to notice.</p>
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<p>'Right. I'll show the bastards. They can't shut me in.'</p>
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<p>'Hold on a minute,' I said, putting a hand on his arm. He shook me off.</p>
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<p>'Leave me alone. I'm getting out of here. I'll find a way they haven't thought of. And when I do, I'm going to expose the bastards.'</p>
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<p>'But there
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<em>is</em> no other way. I've tried them all and the same thing happened to me. And it's got nothing to do with the road. It's something in Arden.'
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</p>
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<p>
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'Don't give me that crap,' he grated. He turned and looked straight at me and I could see a shift in his eyes. Something that hadn't been there before. 'I know. I know what you're up to. You're one of
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<em>them.'</em></p>
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<p>'One of what?'</p>
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<p>'You know what I mean, Ryan. You're with them, aren't you. That's why you came back. All that about writing books was just so much shit, am I right? You're a fucking spy. Come back to spy on your own people.'</p>
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<p>He reached and grabbed my shirt, twisting it hard so that his fist was up against my windpipe. His eyes were red-rimmed.</p>
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<p>In the corner, Janet gasped out a little sob.</p>
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<p>I brought both hands up and grasped his wrist, pushing hard to break his grip.</p>
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<p>
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'I'll show you,' he yelled, right in my face. 'You can't come here and fuck up people's lives like this. You're just jealous that I've made it up here. From down there where you are. You just want to take it away.'</p>
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<p>'Please Alan. Stop this.' Janet sounded really afraid.</p>
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<p>Alan whirled, tugging me around with him.</p>
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<p>'You shut your mouth. I'll sort this out.'</p>
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<p>Janet cringed.</p>
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<p>'Alan, listen to me. It's nobody's fault. There's something going wrong around here. I'm trying to find out. I'm trying to help.'</p>
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<p>All that took a great effort, with Alan's fist still jammed up under my chin. His grip never slackened.</p>
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<p>'You shut up as well. I'll fucking fix you.'</p>
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<p>With that, he whirled me around in a tight orbit and suddenly let go. I pinwheeled backwards and the back of my head connected with the wall with a hard crack that made the room spin for a second or two. Tiny pin-points of light danced in front of my eyes.</p>
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<p>When they cleared, Alan was standing over me, staring down from eyes that looked as thought they'd seen the end of the world. In that instant, he just looked mad.</p>
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<p>He picked up one of the chairs and raised it over his head, then swung it hard at my head. Fortunately his back-swing gave me enough warning to jerk away. It hit the floor with a crash and one leg broke off.</p>
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<p>Janet screamed.</p>
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<p>Alan whirled and looked as if he was about to pounce on her and I scrambled to my feet, with the sick feeling that I would have to fight him and maybe get a bloody nose for my trouble. But then he seemed to forget all about her. In the blink of an eye, it was as if something else had caught his attention. He stopped, stood dead still, as if listening to a voice inside his head. Then he turned and barged out of the kitchen, banging against the doorpost. He didn't seem to notice.</p>
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<p>As he shambled down the hallway, I heard him mutter to himself.</p>
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<p>
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'I'll find the way out. And then they'd better watch out.'</p>
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<p>Alan barged into the hallway door and scrabbled for the handle. He yanked it open and lurched out. In the space of a few moments, he seemed to have lost all co-ordination. He jerked along like a puppet with slack strings. I quickly went to the front door and watched him stumble into his car. The keys must still have been in the big limo, for the engine started immediately. There was a screech of tyres as the car leapt forward, cutting right across the flower-beds and leaving a scored track on the lawn. As it swerved towards the gateway, the driver's door flew open and smacked into the stone pillar with a sound like a gunshot and thumped back.</p>
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<p>Behind me, Janet sobbed loudly. In the living room, the children were almost hysterical. They had picked up Janet's anguish, the way kids can, and were crying inconsolably.</p>
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<p>One of them cried out: 'Daddy! Don't go and leave us. Please come back.'</p>
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<p>It would have broken your heart.</p>
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<p>Nobody saw Alan Scott again. Not alive. It was many, many days before his car was found, nose-down in a gully with its nose crumbled against a large rock, and Alan bashed and broken inside it.</p>
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<p>By then the blowflies had had ample time to get to work. There was not much left of him inside his tweed jacket. But by then, he was just one more to add to the list.</p>
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<p>There wasn't much I could say to Janet and we soon left. As I drove away, I could see her and the kids, pale faces up at the window of the living room, worried sick and scared stiff.</p>
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<p>Paddy had gone quiet, and I had a dull headache, the kind you get when the tension builds up to high pressure.</p>
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<p>I stopped at the chemist's for some pain-killers, but it was closed, which was unusual. The streets were still empty and I noticed that most of the shops still had their shutters up on the windows. I couldn't recall if it was the normal half-day, but I did remember that Holly's bar stocked a selection of hangover cures, so I parked the jeep in the alley beside the bar and told Paddy to wait for me. My head was starting to pound and I wanted something that would reduce that and let me think clearly.</p>
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<p>Holly's was open, but there were none of the regulars inside, which was not unusual at this time of the day, between opening hours - the official ones, that is.</p>
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<p>There was nobody about, but I could hear the sound of movement down in the cellar. I called out and I heard a crash and a mumbling from the dark beyond the hatch. I called John's name, but got no reply.</p>
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<p>Then, from upstairs came another sound and I heard footsteps on the stairs that led to Holly's living quarters that took up the two storeys above the bar. The footsteps came closer and I waited until the door opened. It was Helen, Holly's wife, still in her dressing gown</p>
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<p>She peered round, then gave a start when she saw me standing at the bar.</p>
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<p>'Oh, hi Nick,' she said, and gave me a smile. Her black hair was piled high in the way she'd worn for as long as I could recall, but a couple of wisps had fallen over her forehead, making her look a little unkempt.</p>
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<p>
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'Didn't wake you did I?'</p>
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<p>'No. I was trying to sleep. Didn't get a wink all night.'</p>
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<p>'Sorry to disturb you. Is Holly about?</p>
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<p>'He is.' She pointed to the floor. 'He's down there. And as far as I'm concerned, he can stay there.'</p>
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<p>That surprised me. There was always a running battle of banter between Holly and his wife, normally light-hearted and jovial. I had never heard her criticise him before.</p>
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<p>
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'What's up?'</p>
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<p>
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'He's drinking the place dry, the big fool.'</p>
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<p>'Holly? Drinking? He never touches the stuff during the day.'</p>
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<p>'Tell
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<em>him</em> that. He's been at it since yesterday. He went down last night to change casks and he's been there ever since. Drunk as a fucking lord. He's been into all the stock and he's been smashing the place up something awful. I'm not going down there. I've just let him get on with it.'
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</p>
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<p>She was a statuesque woman, ample proportioned, with a sense of humour to match. I had never heard her curse before, and never ever seen John Hollinger drunk. The big man took a drink, all right, but always at night, near closing time, and it never seemed to affect him except to make his one-liners sharper and his banter more witty.</p>
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<p>'I just came in for some pain-killers,' I said, trying to change the subject. I just didn't have the energy to get involved in a domestic dispute. 'I've got a bit of a headache and nothing for it in the house. The chemist's shut.'</p>
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<p>Helen looked at her wrist where her watch would normally have been, looked puzzled to find it missing and then asked me for the time.</p>
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<p>'Nearly half past four,' I told her.</p>
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<p>
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'That's strange. I thought it was still morning. He must have come up and opened the place.'</p>
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<p>She leaned forward, across the bar and the motion pulled her gown open a little, exposing an expanse of smooth skin, split by an impressive cleavage.</p>
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<p>'If you ask me, he's flipped,' she said. 'he was rattling about down there all night. And the language. Even I've never heard some of those words.'</p>
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<p>
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'He'll feel bad about it once he sobers up. He's going to have a killer headache if he's had as much as you say.'</p>
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<p>'I hope it kills him. I hope his head starts to...' she paused. 'Headache? That's what you came in for, wasn't it?'</p>
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<p>I nodded. There was still a bit of an ache between my ears, but it was easing off. I didn't want to leave Paddy alone in the jeep too long.</p>
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<p>Helen rummaged about the gantry and lifted aside boxes or crisps and nuts, shaking her head.</p>
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<p>'You can never find these damned things when you need them most,' she said, then she turned away from the pile of cartons.</p>
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<p>
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'I've got some upstairs. A whole box. Come on and I'll give you what you need.'</p>
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<p>
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'That's kind of you.' I followed her through the connecting door and up the stairs. In the house above the bar, Helen rummaged around in the bedroom, while I stood and looked out the window into the main street where a handful of people were slowly wandering about. They looked aimless and strangely lost.</p>
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<p>I stood and watched, puzzled, until Helen's voice brought me back.</p>
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<p>'Come and give me a hand, Nick.'</p>
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<p>I dragged by eyes away from the strangely unsettling scene and walked through the short hallway to the bedroom. Without thinking, I strolled into the room where a king-sized unmade bed dominated the space. There was a noise behind me as the door snicked shut and I turned.</p>
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<p>Then I nearly fell on my backside.</p>
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<p>Helen had shucked off her gown. It lay pooled at her ankles. And the rest of her was totally naked.</p>
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<p>
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'What...?'</p>
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<p>She reached both arms in a gesture of invitation, and maybe display. The movement caused her big breasts to sway, juggling her nipples in little circles.</p>
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<p>I must have stood there for ten seconds, just staring, unable to get any words out.</p>
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<p>'Come on, Nick,' she said. A slow smile spread her lips apart. But there was no humour in her eyes. They just looked hungry.</p>
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<p>
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'It's just the two of us. We can have some fun, can't we? He's been no damned good for me, lying down drunk all night.'</p>
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<p>She swayed towards me, Junoesque and rounded. She stepped out of the crumpled gown. Her belly met her thighs in a thick black tangle that contrasted with pale smooth skin. In other circumstances, I'm sure I would have found it inviting.</p>
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<p>But the truth of it was, I was suddenly dead scared. I was rigid with fright.</p>
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<p>Because this wasn't Helen Hollinger. The face and form were undoubtedly hers. But the feral expression she wore was not. It was something else entirely. The smile she gave me became a grimace that was creepily unnerving. And the light in her dark eyes didn't look entirely human.</p>
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<p>Suddenly I thought of Paddy down there in the car, alone in that street of strange, dazed people, and just as suddenly I realised that's where I had to be right now.</p>
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<p>
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'I've got to go,' I said, turning away, trying not to look, when she suddenly lunged at me, clamping her arms around my neck. Her breasts were pressed pneumatically against my ribs and her lips hungrily sought mine.</p>
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<p>I could hear her moaning as I twisted my face away from her mouth and I felt hot breath on my cheek.</p>
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<p>'No Helen. Please. I really have to go now.' I felt a panic well up. Paddy was down there, alone. I had left her. And some instinct inside me realised that this little performance was something aimed at keeping me in here, while Paddy was out there.</p>
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<p>Helen thrust herself against me, hard and strong, clasping herself to me in a tight embrace. Her moans had become a sort of frantic slobbering. Her hips swivelled and punted against my thigh, pushing hard in a series of pulses. Even through my jeans I could feel heat and moisture. I forced myself away, shoving hard against her shoulder, but she clung on, no lightweight, with an animal ferocity.</p>
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<p>My hand went down, almost of its own volition into my pocket and curled around the stone spear-head. Instantly I felt a surge of something ripple through me, cold and bright and in the same moment I felt Helen stiffen against me. Her grip faltered, and I brought the stone up under her arms, up between her breasts and held it against her face.</p>
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<p>I don't know why I did that. It was some sort of subconscious imperative, carried out without real thought.</p>
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<p>Helen let out a great gasp of air, as if she'd been holding her breath and had just been punched hard in the belly.</p>
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<p>Her dark eyes rolled up to show the whites and her arms just fell away from me. She stood there, totally rigid for several seconds, then she fell backwards, as if she'd been pole-axed and landed on the floor with such a thump the house shook.</p>
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<p>She lay still.</p>
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<p>For a moment I was torn between checking that she was still breathing and racing out.</p>
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<p>My heart was pounding from the fright I'd got when looked into her eyes and saw something that was not quite human. I shook my head, ignoring the aching pulse between my temples and went for the door.</p>
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<p>Outside, I stood blinking in the sunlight, catching my breath. For all I knew, Helen was lying dead upstairs while Holly was lying dead drunk down in the cellar.</p>
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<p>Uncharitably, I couldn't have cared less.</p>
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