Mr. Murder. By: Dean R. Koontz

reputation down to their size.

“You’ll be met by an advance man in California,” New York said.

“He’ll give you an update.”

“Terrific.”

Oslett frowned at the phone and pressed END, terminating the He needed a

drink.

In addition to the pilot and co-pilot, the flight crew included a

stewardess. With a button on the arm of his chair, he could summon her

from the small galley at the back of the plane. In seconds she arrived,

and he ordered a double Scotch on the rocks.

She was an attractive blonde in a burgundy blouse, gray skirt, and

matching gray jacket. He turned in his seat to watch her walk back to

the galley.

He wondered how easy she was. If he charmed her, maybe she’d let him

take her into the john and do it to her standing up.

For all of a minute, he indulged that fantasy, but then faced reality

and put her out of his mind. Even if she was easy, there would be

unpleasant consequences. Afterward, she would want to sit beside him,

probably all the way to California, and share with him her thoughts and

feelings about everything from love and fate to death and the

significance of Cheer Whiz. He didn’t care what she thought and felt,

only what she could do, and he was in no mood to pretend to be a

sensitive nineties kind of guy.

When she brought the Scotch, he asked what videotapes were available.

She gave him a list of forty titles. The best movie of all time was in

the plane’s library, Lethal Weapon 3. He had lost track of how many

times he’d seen it, and the pleasure he took from it did not diminish

with repetition. It was the ideal film because it had no story line

that made enough sense to bother following, did not expect the viewer to

watch the characters change and grow, was composed entirely of a series

of violent action sequences, and was louder than a stockcar race and a

Megadeth concert combined.

Four separately positioned monitors made it possible for four films to

be shown simultaneously to different passengers. The stewardess ran

Lethal Weapon 3 on the monitor nearest to Oslett and gave him a set of

headphones.

He put on the headset, turned the volume high, and settled back in his

seat with a grin.

Later, after he finished the Scotch, he dozed off while Danny Glover and

Mel Gibson screamed unintelligible dialogue at each other, fires raged,

machine guns chattered, explosives detonated, and music thundered.

Monday night they stayed in a pair of connecting units in a motel in

Laguna Beach. The accommodations didn’t qualify as five- or even

four-star lodging, but the rooms were clean and the bathrooms had plenty

of towels. With the holiday weekend gone and the summer tourist season

months in the future, at least half of the motel was unoccupied, and

though they were right off Pacific Coast Highway, quiet ruled.

The events of the day had taken their toll. Paige felt as if she had

been awake for a week. Even the too-soft and slightly lumpy motel

mattress was as enticing as a bed of clouds on which gods and goddesses

might sleep.

For dinner they ate pizza in the motel. Marty went out to fetch

it–also salads and cannoli with deliciously thick ricotta custard from

a restaurant a couple of blocks away.

When he returned with the food, he pounded insistently on the door, and

he was pale and hollow-eyed when he rushed inside, arms laden with

take-out boxes. At first Paige thought he had seen the look-alike

cruising the area, but then she realized he expected to return and find

them gone–or dead.

The outer doors of both rooms featured sturdy dead-bolt locks and

security chains. They engaged these and also wedged straight backed

desk chairs under the knobs.

Neither Paige nor Marty could imagine any means by which The Other could

possibly find them. They wedged the chairs under the knobs anyway.

Tight.

Incredibly, in spite of the terror they had been through, the kids were

willing to let Marty convince them that the night away from home was a

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195

Leave a Reply 0

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *