Winter Moon. By: Dean R. Koontz

daily newspaper too closely, brooding about current events too deeply,

and spending far too much time watching television news. Wars,

genocide, riots, terrorist attacks, political bombings, gang wars,

drive-by shootings, child molestations, serial killers on the loose,

carjackings, ecological doomsday scenarios, a young convenience-store

clerk shot in the head for the lousy fifty bucks and change in his

cashregister drawer, rapes and stabbings and strangulations. He knew

modern life was more than this. Goodwill still existed, and good deeds

were still done.

But the media focused on the grimmest aspects of every issue, and so

Though he tried to leave the the TV off, he was drawn to of the

latest tragedies and outrage the hottle or a compulsive yambl citement

of the racetrack The despair inspired by the news was a down escalator

from which he seemed unable to escape. And it was picking up speed

When Heather casually mentioned that Toby would be entering third grade

in a month, Jack began to worry h drug dealing and violence surrounding

A les schools He became convinced they ing to be killed unless they

could find a way, in spite of his financial problems to pay private sc

h t such a once-safe place as a classr d ngerous as a battlefield led

him in f I t the conclusion that nowhere was son. If Toby could be

killed in school, why not on his t playing in his Own front yard? Ia

overly protective parent, which he had never been before, reluctant to

let the boy out of his sight. h fifth of August, with his return to d

way and the restoration of a møre t hand he shouldhave experienced p d

but the Opposite was the case. ting to the division for reassignme eat

even though he was at least a ving off a desk job and back on the li d

he had concealed his fears and P sions from everyone That night he

learned differently In bed, after he turned off the lamp, he worked up

the courage to say in the darkness what he would have been embarrassed

to say in the light: “I’m not going back on the street.”

“I know,” Heather said from her side of the bed. “I don’t mean not

just right away. I mean never.”

“I know, baby,” she said tenderly, and reached out to find and hold his

hand. “Is it that obvious?”

“It’s been a bad couple of weeks.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You had to go through it.”

“I thought I’d be on the street until I retired. It’s all I ever

wanted to do.”

“Things change,” she said. “I can’t risk it now. I’ve lost my

confidence.”

“You’ll get it back.”

“Maybe.”

“You will,” she insisted. “But you still won’t go back on the

street.

You can’t. You’ve done your part, you’ve pushed your luck as far as

any cop could be expected to push it. Let someone else save the

world.”

“I feel …”

“I know.”

“… empty …”

“It’ll get better. Everything does.”

“…

like a sorry-ass quitter.”

“You’re no quitter.” She slid against his side and put her hand on his

chest. “You’re a good man and you’re brave–too damn brave, as far as

I’m concerned. If you hadn’t decided to get off the street, I’d have

decided it for you. One way or another, I’d have made you do it,

because the odds are, next time, I’ll be Alma Bryson and your partner’s

wife will be coming to sit at my side, hold my hand. I’ll be damned to

hell before I’ll let that happen. You’ve had two partners shot down

beside you in one year, and there’s been seven cops killed here since

January. Seven. I’m not going to lose you, Jack.” He put his arm

around her, held her close, profoundly grateful to have found her in a

hard world where so much seemed to depend on random chance. For a

while he couldn’t speak, his voice would have been too thick with

emotion. At last he said, “So I guess from here on out, I’ll park my

butt in a chair and be a desk jockey of one kind or another.”

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

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