DESCEND INTO THE ABYSS

ffort. "You...onwe one...ooh can thop im. Too...wate...fuh me. I

Bill was still watching her, and his conv

ce's marriage wasn't perf

She had somehow reached the age

then terminated the engagement three months later, after discovering that her fiancé

ered, "why would Bil

e," Grace sai

Do you know th

ralyzed smile. "

elieve

eling very like a sixth sense had told her

e had possessed the same instinct about conventional crimes, she'd already be an SAC

other woman," she said, "why

Would coth Biw miw-

wyen...

t Bill had been doing well for some years no

s Grace still teachi

he answered herself. Be

eyes, seemingly dra

said. "Tew huh...I be wait

living half of her face

balling her free hand into a fist

at this, D

Bill F

's ready to get up a

use Alex as a shield. The terror in her eyes hurt Alex's heart, and it also thrust

t come in," she said, looking ha

ooked past her to Grace, who wa

alking about?"

n here? Have you said som

Dr. Andrews, who

he reverse,

head in appar

't unde

fears and accusations were probably the product of a dying woman's h

ou can see that. You should go

g to leave my wife's bed

d, a note of chall

"When she might..." Al

nd said, "Perhaps we should give Grac

ll said irritably. "I'm Grace's husband

Alex said with bon

at's all that matters. We need to keep her as c

around Alex and looked down at her p

et

your husband

er head. "I wan...my

p at Bill Fennell, w

me. I want you to leav

the neurologist, his e

u think you're talking to, but I give a lot of

Dr. Andrews said quietly, lifti

ws, but Bill seemed unable to make the decision to leave. He looked, Alex thought, like an actor

unnecessary. Nurses were already running from the station to the cubic

r. Andrews said, ya

here was no crash cart; ev

otion, all directed toward a single purpose-to sus

all male nurse standing behin

en returned to work. Alex backed slowly out of the ICU, watching the final

oosing law school over medic

she had bec

pi, and the result would be the same. Grace's fate was in God's

ennell-and looked at the nurses' station, where b

, recalling how difficult it was to watch multiple surveillan

Dr. Andrews say, "I'm calling it, guys

buckshot and a half pound of glass had blasted through the right side of her face, ye

h, ten twent

est, but before the release, she heard a

r chamber of hell and saw before it a boy about four and a half feet tall. H

rave, but Alex saw fear

finally picking her out

from behind Alex. "Hello,

low," Jamie

ver her

ern face, and the thing that had started to

her arms and then out the door, away from this he

om Bill

ay