The Cold Smell Of Sacred Stone

true. It got us off on the wrong foot at the beginning, which is something I still regret. As I've said repeatedly, my only concern is that Garth get well; I don't care about anything else.' I paused, wanting to choose my next words carefully. 'Even if there were something funny going on here, I wouldn't want to know about it. That's not to say that I think there is; I'm just trying to make my priorities and position crystal clear.'

Slycke studied me for some time, his face a blank, then abruptly looked down at the papers on his desk. 'Good night, Dr. Frederickson,' he said tersely.

'Good night, Dr. Slycke.'

After my talk with Slycke, I returned to Garth's room. I'd been concerned that some of the things I'd said earlier might have upset my brother, but I found him where I'd left him-contentedly sitting at the table, staring out the window and humming softly along with the music coming through his earphones. Siegfried. I sat with him for a half hour, until it was time to change the tape. Forcing myself to flash a big smile, I rose, patted him on the shoulder, and told him I'd stop by next day to see how he was doing. Garth said that would be fine, and then went back to listening to his music.

Distracted, self-absorbed, and decidedly upset about Garth's condition and my possible role in causing it, I could easily have been killed if my knife-wielding attacker had been slightly more skilled and slightly less impatient. I was halfway back to the staff building, taking a shortcut around the back of the chapel, when a figure wearing a gray, hooded sweat shirt leaped out at me from behind the trunk of a huge oak tree. The man's right hand described an arc heading for my chest, and moonlight glinted off the six-inch blade of the hunting knife he held. I dropped to my knees; as the blade passed through the air over my head, I planted both hands on the ground, kicked up and back at the man's midsection. I missed his stomach and groin, but caught him solidly on the left hip. The man cried out in surprise and pain as he flew backward through the air and landed hard on his back. The knife landed on the grass in the darkness somewhere off to my right, and I decided not to waste time looking for it. I scrambled to my feet, darted back to where the man still lay on the ground, and kicked him in the head. Then I sat down hard on his chest. With my left hand I pulled back the hood, brought back my right with the index and middle fingers stiffly extended, ready to strike at his eyes or larynx. I stopped when I found myself looking down into the startled, frightened face of Dane Potter. Blood was running from his mouth. He coughed, turned his head to one side, and spat teeth.

'You hurt me,' the boy mumbled thickly, gasping for breath.

'Just what the hell do you think you're doing, Dane?'

'You're not allowed to hurt me! My parents will sue you!'

'Dane, that's a really crazy thing to say to me,' I replied, and stomped on his stomach as I was getting off him. He doubled up, turned over on his side, gagged, and threw up.

When Dane Potter had finished being sick, but before he could completely catch his breath, I stripped his sweat shirt off him, used it to tie his hands firmly behind his back. I pulled him to his feet, gripped the folds of the sweat shirt, and dragged him backward along with me as I searched in the grass. I found the knife, slipped it into the waistband of my jeans. I also picked up his teeth-three of them-and put them in my pocket. Dentists can do wonders these days.

'I want to go back to the hospital now, Frederickson,' the boy wheezed over his shoulder in a kind of mewling, simpering moan. His breath whistled through the gaps where his teeth had been.

'That's where you were headed before you decided to take this little detour and try to kill me, right?'

'Frederickson, I-'

'And that was you in the pickup trying to add me to the paint job on the bridge this afternoon, right? Don't try to bullshit me, Dane, or I'll kick out some more teeth.'

The boy swallowed hard, nodded. 'I'm sorry, Frederickson. Please take me back.'

'In a few minutes,' I said, dragging the limping teenager into the moon shadows at the rear of the chapel. 'Maybe. Then again, maybe I'll break your arms first. I hate to think of what would have happened to me if you'd gotten your hands on a gun. That's your weapon of choice, right?'

The boy's eyes were wide with pain and fear; I decided my words were having a therapeutic effect on him.

'You can't do this,' the boy whimpered, craning his neck back and spraying blood over me. 'It's against the law; it's abuse.'

'If it's abuse you want, you big, stupid shit, I'll give it to you. What I've done so far is called reality therapy- and if I think the reality therapy isn't working, then I may really beat your ass. People have a right to defend themselves, Dane. If you want to be crazy and try to hurt people, don't be surprised or offended if someone hands you your head. This is the real world out here, my young friend, and you made the wrong move with the wrong person. You're extremely lucky you're not dead or permanently crippled right now, and I'm debating how I should drive that lesson home. What do you think? Should I knock out some more teeth, or just break your nose?'

The boy bowed his head, sobbed. 'Please don't hurt me any more, Frederickson.'

'I won't if you answer my questions and tell me the truth. Have you hurt anybody since you ran away?'

'No.'

'Everyone thought you were long gone. What the hell are you doing here, and why did you try to kill me? I certainly don't think it's because you miss your desk. I never hurt you, and I even thought you and I were beginning to establish something of a working relationship.'

The psychotic teenager shook his head, sobbed again. 'I didn't want to do it, Frederickson.'

'Then why did you?'

'Marilyn made me do it. She said I had to kill you if I wanted to stay with her.'

'Dane, I really hope for your sake that this isn't crazy talk.'

'It's not crazy talk, Frederickson.'

'Who the hell is Marilyn?'

'She's my woman, man,' the boy replied, raising his head. His voice had become considerably brighter. 'She's beautiful, man. She helped me escape and then took me to live with her. Man, we've been blowing dope and fucking like bunnies.'

I yanked on the sweat shirt, slinging Dane Potter none too gently up against the brick wall of the chapel. I anchored him there with my finger on his solar plexus. Now I could see that his eyes were cocaine-bright.

'What horseshit are you trying to hand me, Dane?'

The boy swallowed, grimaced, spat blood. 'You hurt me bad, Frederickson.'

'Who's this Marilyn? Some old girl friend?'

'Marilyn's no girl, Frederickson; she's a woman.''

'How old is she?'

'I don't know how old she is.'

'But she's not a kid?'

'No, man. I told you she's a-'

'How'd you meet her?'

'Two days ago I got a call down in the cottage. There was this woman on the line, and she talked in this low, real sexy voice. She told me she was dying to fuck my brains out; she actually said that. She told me she worked at the hospital, out in the records department at the front. She said I'd never seen her, but that she was always watching me. She said that she was in love with me, and she wanted to help me run away so that I could come and live with her. She told me she needed a big stud like me to keep her satisfied, and she wanted me around so she could fuck me any time she wanted. Recreation was showing us a movie that night, and she told me to slip out whenever I could and go down by the gym; the exit door there would be unlocked. That's what I did. The door was unlocked, just like she'd said it would be, and she was out there waiting for me in her car. Whooee! She drove me to her place, and we got right into bed. Man, I ain't never had a woman like that. And she had lots of coke-a whole pile of the stuff. We'd screw, blow some dope, then screw some more. Today, just after lunch, she said that I had to do something for her if I wanted to stay with her. I had to kill you.'

'Kill me?'

Dane Potter nodded. 'She drove me back here, and we parked and just kind of watched and waited. When