"No, that's all right. I'm always glad to see you. Can I get you anything?"
"I'm fine, Karyn. Sit down, please."
"I think I will, if you don't mind." She returned to the chair by the window and eased into it. It was true that she was glad to see Chris, but keeping the conversation going was an effort.
Chris perched uncomfortably on the edge of the sofa. "So tell me what's been happening."
"Not very much. It's a quiet life up here. We lost Lady."
"Lost her? What happened?"
Karyn looked out the window, her face empty of expression. "Something caught her in the woods and killed her."
Chris leaned forward, staring at her. "What are you talking about? What caught her?"
Karyn shrugged her shoulders. She felt loose and disjointed wearing the oversized robe. "I don't know what it was. The sheriff — but he's not really a sheriff — says it was a coyote. Or maybe it was an owl." She giggled suddenly and put a hand over her mouth like a little girl caught laughing in class.
Chris got up and walked over to her chair. He looked down into her face. "Karyn, what is the matter? I told you you look tired, but you don't. You look sick."
"I'm all right. I have some pills that I take for my nerves and to help me sleep. I'm all right."
"What kind of pills?"
"Who knows? Dr. Volkmann gave them to me."
"Who is Dr. Volkmann?"
"He's just Dr. Volkmann. He lives in Drago. He came out when I was sick."
"I don't know what he's giving you, but it doesn't look like it's helping a lot."
"Is that a comment on the way I look?"
"Karyn, I'm serious. We've been friends long enough so that I shouldn't have to play games. I think you should have another doctor examine you."
"Dr. Volkmann is a good doctor."
Chris started to say something more, then seemed to think better of it. "I'm sorry I missed Roy. We must have passed each other on the freeway."
"I don't think so. Roy drove in yesterday."
"And left you here alone?"
"It didn't matter. I had a nice young couple for company."
"Overnight?"
"No, they had to leave."
Chris shook his head slowly, but said nothing. He made several more attempts to kindle a conversation, but Karyn found it hard to concentrate on his words. She felt one step removed from everything that was happening. In a way it was a comfortable feeling, but in the depths of her consciousness she knew something was very wrong.
After a while they ran out of words and Chris moved toward the door. "I guess I might as well be heading back to L.A."
Karyn rose to walk out with him. She looked into his eyes and saw herself reflected in the pupils. There was something she would like to tell him, but it seemed too much trouble to put into words. For some reason a tear formed in the corner of one eye and rolled down her cheek.
Chris took a step toward her. "You're not well. Let me take you to a doctor in Los Angeles."
She shook her head without saying anything. The tears came freely.
"Karyn, please, you've got to let me help you." He reached out to her, grasping her shoulders, and pulled her against him.
Since the day she had been assaulted in the apartment no man but her husband had touched Karyn. Now, through some trick of the mind, she was back there. The gentle face of her friend Chris Halloran twisted and changed like a rubber mask into the foul leering thing that had attacked her. Chris's hand on her shoulders became the rough, grasping hands of the rapist. She pulled her head back to look into his face. He was saying something, but all she could see were his teeth. Teeth like those that had torn the flesh of her thigh and left her scarred down there.
"Get away from me!" she cried. "Get away! Don't touch me, you filthy animal!"
Instantly Chris pulled his hands away and stepped back. "Karyn, what's the matter with you? What are you saying?"
She balled her hand into a fist and swung at him. In his astonishment, Chris made no move to avoid the blow, and her fist smacked into the corner of his mouth, slicking his lip with blood.
He seized her wrists. "Have you gone crazy?"
"You'd better get out of here," she said, her voice rising hysterically. "If my husband finds you here he'll kill you."
Chris touched the corner of his mouth and looked at the blood on his fingertips. "All right, dammit, enough. I don't know what's happening to you up here, Karyn, but if this is the way you want it, it's your business. Excuse the intrusion."
He sidestepped her and shouldered out through the door. Karyn heard the car door slam. The engine roared to life and the Camaro spun away in an angry burst of gravel.
For several minutes she stood by the door, breathing raggedly, feeling her heart pound. The fog that had clouded her mind throughout the day had been shredded by Chris's sudden anger. She walked into the bathroom and ran the cold water. She caught it in her cupped hands and dashed it into her face. The cold shock helped to clear her head even more. She looked into the mirror and saw the pale, unkempt creature Chris had seen. What had come over her to act the way she had? For a terrible few seconds Chris had seemed to become the rapist. She had screamed at him, hit him, sent him away. What was happening to her?
Chapter Thirteen
Karyn took a long steaming-hot shower, then forced herself to stand for twenty seconds while the water sprayed icy cold. She rubbed her body dry with a big rough towel and went out to the kitchen to start a pot of coffee. While it percolated she put on a clean pair of jeans and a light sweater. She drank the coffee black and strong, then brushed her teeth until her gums tingled. For the first time in days her body began to feel strong, her mind clear, with only traces of cobwebs. It was two o'clock when she left the house and walked briskly down the lane toward Drago.
By the time she had reached the blacktopped main street Karyn's legs ached from the unaccustomed activity after days of little exercise. Still, she felt refreshed and alert. The scent of the pines washed out her lungs as she swung down the drab street. Some movement down the street on the other side caught her eye, and she slowed her pace.
A tow truck was pulled up there in front of a metallic-blue van. The driver was out of the truck attaching a cable to the front of the van. Something stirred in Karyn's memory. She walked over to where the tow-truck driver stood between the two vehicles.
"Are you towing this van away?"
"That's right. You the owner?"
"No, but I think I know who is. Why are you taking it?"
"The Highway Patrol got an abandoned-vehicle report. When that happens we pull 'em in."
"Where did the report come from?"
The driver pulled a sheet of paper from his pocket and unfolded it. "Report phoned in by Anton Gadak. You know him?"
"I know him. Is he around?"
"He was here a few minutes ago to sign the towaway order. I think he went in the tavern up the street there."
Karyn hesitated for a moment. This was really none of her business. Yet in a way it was. She had liked young Neal Edwards and Pam Sealander. She thanked the tow-truck driver for the information and walked up the street toward the tavern where he had said Anton Gadak could be found.
It was dark inside. Most of the overhead bulbs were burned out, and the flickering beer signs behind the bar only deepened the shadows. The air was stale with old beer, the floor gritty beneath her feet. Karyn stood for a moment inside the door until her eyes adjusted to the gloom.
Anton Gadak sat midway along the bar with a glass of beer in front of him. On the next stool sat a paunchy man in overalls. They were the only customers. The bartender sat dozing in a wooden chair at the far end of the bar.
Karyn walked up behind Gadak and cleared her throat. "Excuse me."