"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's."
"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. Zeno?"
"Datsun. 1972. Orange."
"License 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?"
"Like I said, maybe an hour ago. She left you a note." Nevins pointed at the sheriff's desk.
Ramsay snatched up the sheet from his calendar pad and read it swiftly. As Holly had done, he glanced at the wall map to check the location of Bear Paw.
"I'm going after her," he said. "Will you be all right here, Roy?"
"I can handle it, Gavin," said Deputy Nevins, sucking in his stomach.
"Good. I'm sure Hoyden and Placerman here will give you all the help they can."
The attorney general's men nodded their agreement.
"I'll be back as soon as possible."
Ramsay started out of the office, then hesitated. He looked thoughtfully at Louis Zeno, who was still pale and shaking from what he had found at the cabin. Ramsay himself had been shocked at the inhuman violence done to Abe Craddock. He strode back to his desk and unlocked the bottom drawer. From it he took a heavy, square box and dropped it into a jacket pocket.
"What's that, Sheriff?" Roy asked.
"Bullets," he said. "Just in case." What he did not add was that they were the special bullets given to him by Ken Dowd, the owner of the occult shop. Silver bullets.
Malcolm watched in tearful, helpless rage as Kruger fumbled with the snap at the waist of Holly Lang's jeans. His fingers clamped over the heavy steel mesh like the jaws of a caged beast.
Kruger paid him no attention. He popped the snap and slid the zipper down, revealing the filmy blue bikini pants Holly wore underneath. The man's breathing grew louder. His eyes glistened.
"Leave her alone," Malcolm cried. In his voice was a strange new quality. A growl. Even Kruger, in his lust, stopped and turned toward the cage.
"Hey, look at freak-boy! Look at that face! Too bad the doctor ain't here to see this. Maybe you get off on watching, huh, freak-boy? Well, you pay attention, then, 'cause I'm gonna give you plenty to watch."
He returned his concentration to pulling the tight jeans down Holly's legs. She moaned softly but did not regain consciousness. The bluish bruise from Kruger's fist was already beginning to show on her jaw.
With some difficulty, Kruger pulled the jeans completely off, taking Holly's boots with them and exposing her long, slim legs. He reached up and touched her pubic mound through the blue nylon.
Malcolm snarled. The fires inside burned hotter than ever before. The sinewy, hairy hands that now grew at the ends of his arms gripped the steel mesh and pulled. With a loud rip the material of his pajamas tore at the shoulders, where new muscles bulged and humped. The mesh of the cage bent and started to pull apart where he gripped it.
Kruger, his fingers now hooked under the elastic of Holly's bikini, looked over. His wet, red mouth opened in surprise.
The window high on the wall above them burst inward. A beast, lithe and muscular, dived headfirst through the shattering glass. The beast landed gracefully on all fours, his great shaggy head swiveling to take in the situation. The black lips peeled back in a snarl.
Malcolm froze where he stood. The mesh of the cage before him was ripped wide enough for him to slip through, but he could not move.
Holly moaned again. Her eyelids fluttered. She tried to raise her head.
Kruger let go of her and scrambled to his feet. He stared at the creature now advancing on him.
"Get back! Get back!"
Malcolm, from inside the torn cage, stared at the beast. It rose on hind legs to a full seven feet. The talons, the gleaming teeth, the powerful jaws, all were capable of killing a man in seconds. The eyes glowed an unholy green.