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Billy moaned and nodded, leaving a smear of fresh blood on the floor.<br />
"Good. Now let's get your paperwork done. I'd hate not to follow proper police procedure."<br />
Chapter Six<br />
"Boo! Would you cut that out?" Beth punched her pillow and rolled over so she faced the cat.<br />
He looked at her and meowed. In the glow from the kitchen light she'd left on, she saw him paw at the glass door.<br />
"Not likely, Boo-man. You're a house cat. House. Cat. Trust me, the big outdoors isn't as grand as it seems."<br />
She closed her eyes, and when the next plaintive meow came, she cursed and threw off her sheet. She went to the door and stared<br />
outside.<br />
That was when she saw the man. He was standing against the back wall of the <strong>co</strong>urtyard, a dark shape much larger than the other,<br />
familiar shadows cast by the trash bins and the moss-<strong>co</strong>vered picnic table.<br />
With shaking hands she checked the lock on the door and then went to her windows. Both were locked as well. She pulled the<br />
shades down, grabbed her portable phone, and went back to stand over Boo.<br />
The man had moved.<br />
Shit!<br />
He was <strong>co</strong>ming toward her. She checked the lock on the door again and backed away, catching the edge of the futon with her<br />
foot. As she tumbled into space, the phone fell out of her hand and bounced away. She hit the mattress hard, head bobbing on her<br />
neck from the impact.<br />
Impossibly, the door slid open as if the lock had never been turned, as if she'd never clicked it into place.<br />
Still flat on her back, she pumped her legs wildly, knotting the sheets as she pushed her body away from him. He was tremendous,<br />
his shoulders wide as beams, his legs as thick as her torso. She <strong>co</strong>uldn't see his face, but the menace <strong>co</strong>ming off him was like a gun<br />
aimed at her chest.<br />
She whimpered as she rolled over on to the floor and crawled away from him, her knees and palms squeaking against the<br />
hardwood. His footsteps behind her landed like thunder, getting louder. Cowering like an animal, blinded by fear, she knocked into<br />
her hall table and felt no pain at all.<br />
Tears streamed down her cheeks as she begged for mercy and reached for the front door—<br />
Beth woke up, mouth open, a terrible noise shattering the dawn's silence.<br />
It was her. She was screaming at the top of her lungs.<br />
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She clamped her lips together, and sure enough her ears stopped hurting. Shuffling out of bed, she went to the sliding door and<br />
greeted the sun's first rays with a relief so sweet she got light-headed. As her heart slowed, she took a deep breath and checked<br />
the door.
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