for a frozen moment, stunned by what she saw.
A thick-shouldered brute of a man with scrubby black hair on a bullet head turned when she entered. He held what appeared to be an electrified metal rod in one hand. He was standing in front of a steel mesh cage. Inside the cage a pitiful figure writhed on the floor.A boy, Holly thought, though she could not be sure. He lay curled on the floor, muscles twitching, his limbs bent into strange, unnatural positions. On the visible areas of skin grew uneven patches of hair.
'Malcolm!' she cried. 'My good God, what have they done to you?'
The face that looked up at her from the floor of the cruel cage wrenched Holly's heart. She recognized in it the boy Malcolm, yet it was not Malcolm. The bones seemed to have shifted subtly, elongating the face. The eyes were a strange luminescent green. He said something that might have been her name, then quickly covered his mouth with a darkened, long-nailed hand.
'Who are you, girlie?'
It took a moment for Holly to realize the brutish man was talking to her. She turned toward him and fought down the rage inside her. Her impulse was to strike out blindly at him, but she knew this was a time for control.
'I am Dr Hollanda Lang. I demand to know what you are doing to this boy.'
The Doctor seemed to confuse the man; to draw from him a touch of respect. At least temporarily.
'How did you get in?' he asked.
'I walked in. The door was open.'
'You shouldn't of done that.' A sly look crept into his dark little eyes.
'I want you to release this boy at once.'
'I can't do that. Dr Pastory said I was supposed to keep him in there.'
'Did Dr Pastory also give you orders to torture the boy?'
'What are you talkin' about?'
'Answer my question.'
'Are you a friend of the doctor?'
The figure in the cage had pulled itself half erect on the steel mesh. The hands were more human now, the boy more recognizable as Malcolm. He looked so terribly young and vulnerable in the oversized pyjamas.
'Holly,' he said, his voice hoarse but clearing.
'Malcolm, thank God I've found you. Are you badly hurt?'
The boy looked down at his hands, which still bore patches of dark hair. He let go the screen and tried to hide the hands behind him.
'I… I… '
Holly moved quickly to the cage. She lay one hand flat against the diamond mesh. He backed away.
'Don't be afraid, Malcolm. And don't worry. I'm going to get you out of here, and I'm going to help you.'
She turned at the sound of a movement behind her. The big man had taken a step toward her. He was clenching and unclenching his hands. The metal rod hung forgotten at his side.
'What's your name?' she demanded.
The authority in Holly's voice held him for a moment. 'K-Kruger,' he stammered. 'Dr Pastory left me in charge while he's gone.'
'Well, Kruger, you just get the key to this lock and open the cage right now.' She spoke with an assurance she did not feel. This Kruger was obviously unbalanced mentally. God only knew what sadistic tortures he had been subjecting Malcolm to, but Holly knew she was treading a thin line with him.
Kruger shook his bullet head slowly from side to side. 'No, I don't think I'm gonna do that.'
She tried softening her tone.
'It's all right, Kruger. I'll explain to Dr Pastory that I told you to let the boy out.'
A crafty smile slid over the man's thick features. 'Oh, no you don't. I know who you are. You're that Holly woman. The one he,' Kruger nodded toward Malcolm, 'keeps calling for. You ain't no friend of the doctor.'
'You just let him out of there. Right now, Kruger, or you're going to be in a whole lot of trouble.'
'Not me, girlie. It ain't me who's going to be in trouble.' Moving with surprising speed, Kruger crossed the room and placed himself between her and the door.
'Run, Holly,' Malcolm said in a strangled voice. 'He'll hurt you.'
Sensing the menace in the big man's tensed body, Holly tried to step around him to the door. He seized her by the arm above one elbow and squeezed it painfully.
'Let go of me!' she demanded, but her voice betrayed the fear that was building within her.
Kruger felt it too. 'Your little freak friend is right,' he said. 'I can hurt you if I want to. So you better be nice to me. You understand?'
'Let go!' Holly said again.
Before she could move, she was pulled hard against Kruger's body. His thick, moist lips covered her mouth. His tongue tried to force itself past her clenched teeth.
Acting on instinct, she pumped one knee up between the big man's legs. Her knee slid off the hard muscles of his inner thigh, weakening the blow to his testicles.
Kruger grunted and pulled his head back.
'Bitch!'
He balled one huge fist and hit Holly on the point of the jaw.
It seemed her head had been slammed up against the ceiling. The lights went out for Holly Lang and she fell heavily to the floor. Kruger laughed and knelt over her.
When Gavin Ramsay returned to his office, supporting a hysterical Louis Zeno, two men in neat business suits were waiting for him with Deputy Nevins. They introduced themselves as Hoyden and Placerman from the California attorney general's office.
'We got your request,' said Hoyden, the senior of the two, 'to assist with the investigation you're running down here.'
'I can sure use you,' Ramsay said. He briefly described the scene he had found at the old Whitaker cabin. 'I left my man Fernandez in charge there. He'll keep the sightseers away until we can secure the area.'
'This a witness?' Hoyden said, nodding toward Zeno.
'He found the body.'
The writer took this as a cue to start talking. 'It was the worst thing I've ever seen in my life. I'm talking bad, man. Blood everywhere. Pieces of my man all over the cabin. My typewriter was ruined.'
'Did you get a look at the guy who did it?' Deputy Nevins asked.
'No man did that,' Zeno said.
'What do you mean?'
'No one man could make an unholy mess like that in the
little time I was gone.'
'Gang of some kind?' Placerman suggested.
'Shit if I know. That's you guys' job. You figure it out.'
'Try to relax, Mr Zeno,' Ramsay said. 'Deputy Nevins here will take your statement.'
'Stole my car too,' said Zeno.
'What's that? Who stole your car?'
'Whoever… whatever tore up Abe Craddock. Drove off in my car right when I came out of the cabin.'
'What kind of a car was it, Mr Craddock?'
'Datsun. 1972. Orange.'
'Licence number?'
'I… I… oh, shit, I know it… '
'Hey, I think I saw that car, maybe an hour ago,' Nevins interrupted.
'Where, Roy?'
'I was watching Holly, Dr Lang, drive away, and this orange Datsun pulled out right behind her and went off in the same direction.'
'Holly was here? When?'
