He opened his eyes.
He was sweating.
Katherine. The bitch.
For thirty-five years, he had lived in her shadow, had existed miserably in constant fear of her. Five years ago, she had died of heart disease, and he had tasted freedom for the first time in his life. But she kept coming back from the dead, pretending to be other women, looking for a way to take control of him again.
He wanted to use her and kill her to show her that she did not scare him. She had no power over him any more. He was now stronger than she was.
He reached for the bundle of chamois cloths that lay beside the mattress, untied them, unwrapped his spare knife.
He wouldn’t be able to sleep until he killed her.
Tonight.
She wouldn’t be expecting him back so soon.
He looked at his watch. Midnight.
People would still be returning home from the theater, late dinner, parties. Later, the streets would be deserted, the houses lightless and quiet, and there would be less chance of being spotted and reported to the police.
He decided that he would leave for Westwood at two o’clock.
Three
THE LOCKSMITH came and changed the locks on the front and back doors, then went on to another job in Hancock Park.
Officers Farmer and Whitlock left.
Hilary was alone.
She didn’t think she could sleep, but she knew for sure she couldn’t spend the night in her own bed. When she stood in that room, her mind’s eye filled with vivid images of terror: Frye smashing through the door, stalking her, grinning demoniacally, moving inexorably toward the bed and suddenly leaping onto it, rushing across the mattress with the knife raised high…. As before, in a curious dreamlike flux, the memory of Frye became a memory of her father, so that for an instant she had the crazy notion that it had been Earl Thomas, raised from the dead, who had tried to kill her tonight. But it was not merely the residual vibrations of evil in the room that put it off limits. She was also unwilling to sleep there until the ruined door had been removed and a new one hung, a job that couldn’t be taken care of until she could get hold of a carpenter tomorrow. The flimsy door that had been there had not held long against Frye’s assault, and she had decided to have it replaced with a solid-core hardwood door and a brass deadbolt. But if Frye came back and somehow got into the house tonight, he would be able to walk right into her room while she slept–if she slept.
And sooner or later he would come back. She was as certain of that as she ever had been about anything.
She could go to a hotel, but that didn’t appeal to her. It would be like hiding from him. Running away. She was quietly proud of her courage. She never ran away from anyone or anything; she fought back with all of her ingenuity and strength. She hadn’t run away from her violent and unloving parents. She had not even sought psychological escape from the searing memory of the final monstrous and bloody events in that small Chicago apartment, had not accepted the kind of peace that could be found in madness or convenient amnesia, which were two ways out that most people would have taken if they’d been through the same ordeal. She had never backed away from the endless series of challenges she had encountered while struggling to build a career in Hollywood, first as an actress, then as a screenwriter. She had gotten knocked down plenty of times, but she had picked herself up again. And again. She persevered, fought back, and won. She would also win this bizarre battle with Bruno Frye, even though she would have to fight it alone.
Damn the police!
She decided to sleep in one of the guest rooms, where there was a door she could lock and barricade. She put sheets and a blanket on the queen-size bed, hung towels in the adjoining guest bathroom.
Downstairs, she rummaged through the kitchen drawers, taking out a variety of knives and testing each for balance and sharpness. The large butcher’s knife looked deadlier than any of the others, but to her small hand it was unwieldy. It would be of little use in close quarters fighting, for she needed room to swing it. It might be an excellent weapon for attack, but it was not so good for self-defense. Instead, she chose an ordinary utility knife with a four-inch blade, small enough to fit in a pocket of her robe, large enough to do considerable damage if she had to use it.