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scurried off into the kitchen in tears.
I looked over and shot a disapproving glare at Carlos.  Are you done having fun now?
 Tony. I didn t do anything. We had an accident.
 You know if that girl is under eighteen you can get into big trouble for fooling around like that.
 Tony, I... I& 
 Never mind. Listen up. Travis Webber was killed on March 19th, Barbara Richardson on April 18th and
Chris Walker on May 18th. See a connection yet?
Carlos nodded, but his answer came slowly.  It looks like once-a-month intervals.
 That s right, just about once a month. What does that tell you?
He hesitated.  I don t know, that Millie suffers from a mean case of PMS?
My lip curled sharply upward.  No, Carlos. It is not PMS.
He sank sheepishly in his seat.  All right then what?
 Well, it s not that your take is necessarily wrong, but I was thinking more along the lines of astronomy
rather than biology.
 Come again.
 Think lunar cycles, not menstrual cycles.
He slid down lower, clearly uncomfortable talking about the female condition.  Okay, lunar cycles, he
huffed.  I see where this is going. We re talking about full moons.
 Yes. As near as I can tell, all three murders occurred on full moons. And unless I miss my guess, we have
until June 16th before the next bloodbath.
 So then why don t we take Millie in for attempted murder on your life now?
 It s not that easy. I cannot prove anything. Her sending me to the pier is circumstantial at best. When you
think about it, we have nothing on any of them. I m afraid our choices are limited.
Carlos straightened up in his chair again.  Limited to what?
 Waiting. We wait until the 16th and hope no one else loses a liver before then.
 Hmm, would this be a good time for me to put in for vacation?
I waved the curly-haired server back to the table for coffee refills.  No, Carlos, I said.  I think you should
stick around. It s just getting interesting.
Twenty-two
The next several weeks proved excruciatingly difficult for me. I had to keep out of sight so that Lilith and the
others would not know I was still alive, and the sitting around with nothing to do gave me cabin fever. At one
point, the boredom got so bad that it nearly gave way to a catastrophe of epic proportion.
In the middle of a bright June day, after only the second week of biding my time, I decided to see what
would happen if I untied one of the knots from my witch s ladder inside the police station. I imagined if I
employed intense concentration and discipline that I could produce a very small tornado, not unlike the one in
Millie s house, only much smaller. As the resident office moles and attending detectives gathered around, I
cleared a space on my desk and proceeded to tap the potential of Mother Nature s fury.
It started innocently; a novelty of amusement for all whom bore witness to its charming, whimsical little
dance. Like a miniature Tasmanian devil, the swirling wind whipped an enchanting path across my desk, lightly
ruffling papers and files hastily pushed aside for its crusade.
My amused associates took turns poking and probing with intrusive fingers inside its conical orifice. It
seemed harmless enough, until we noticed the tiny tornado responding to touch with an almost lifelike emotion.
Much like fish reacts when you tap the side of a fish tank, the inquisitive little twister actually seemed drawn by
curiosity and then frightened by its discovery.
In time, some of us decided to feed the miniature cyclone a variety of storm worthy debris: cigarette ash,
peanut shells, shredded bits of paper and even open packets of coffee sweetener. The tornado grew bigger with
every morsel it gobbled up, until finally, I worried that things were getting a bit too scary.
Soon, a controlled panic set in. We immediately assembled a cyclone committee to address the emerging
crisis. The committee submitted suggestions for how best to snuff out the runaway tempest. Only after
attempting to drown it with water, blow it out with a fire extinguisher and suffocating it with coats and hats, did
we finally realize that the genie was truly out of the bottle, and it was not going back in voluntarily. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]