that we can both reach a mutual satisfaction.'
I got the eerie feeling that I was talking to the devil himself, that
somehow I had been tricked into selling my soul.
'Be here at 8.00 sharp, the night after next,' he said.
That was how it started.
As Rankin and I laid the sheeted body of Daniel Whetherby on the
lab table, lights flashed on behind sheeted oblongs that looked like
glass tanks.
'Weinbaum ' I had dropped the title, Mister, without thinking, 'I
think '
'Did you say something?' he asked, his eyes boring into mine. The
laboratory seemed far away. There were only the two of us, sliding
through a half-world peopled with horrors beyond the imagination.
Rankin entered in a white smock coat and broke the spell by
saying, 'All ready, professor.'
At the door, Rankin stopped me. 'Friday, at eight.'
A shudder, cold and terrible raced up my spine as I looked back.
Weinbaum had produced a scalpel and the body was unsheeted.
They looked at me strangely and I hurried out.
I took the car and quickly drove down the narrow dirt road. I didn't
look back. The air was fresh and warm with a promise of budding
summer. The sky was blue with fluffy white clouds fleeting along
in the warm summer breeze. The night before seemed like a
nightmare, a vague dream, that, as all nightmares, is unreal and
transparent when the bright light of day shines upon it. But as I
drove past the wrought iron gates of the Crestwood Cemetery I
realized that this was no dream. Four hours ago my shovel had
removed the dirt that covered the grave of Daniel Wheatherby.
For the first time a new thought occurred to me. What was the
body of Daniel Wheatherby being used for at that moment? I
shoved the thought into a deep corner of my mind and let out onto
the go-pedal. The care screamed ahead I put my thoughts into
driving, glad to put the terrible thing I had done out of my mind,
for a short time, anyway.
CHAPTER FOUR
The California countryside blurred by as I tried for the maximum
speed. The tyres sang on the curve and, as I came out of it, several
things happened in rapid succession.
I saw a panel truck crazily parked right on the broken white line, a
girl of about eighteen running right toward my car, an older man
running after her. I slammed on the brakes and they exploded like
bombs. I jockeyed the wheel and the California sky was suddenly
under me. Then everything was right-side up and I realized that I
had flipped right over and up. For a moment I was dazed, then a
scream, shrill and high, piercing, slit my head.
I opened the door and sprinted toward the road. The man had the
girl and was yanking her toward the panel truck. He was stronger
than her and winning, but she was taking an inch of skin for every
foot he made.
He saw me.
