Ona...

The thought came like a single sob of joy. Like a herald, like a breath of- Of what? he wondered.

Of hope?

No. Deliverance.

Enraptured in the tainted dark, the Reverend stood poised in the opposite comet. The darkness dressed him as if in a holy man"s mantle. He was, after all, a holy man. He gave succor to holy things. He bid blessings and cast absolutions. In his own cloak now, weaved of the most austere sackcloth, he stood in pensive, undeniable worship.

Save us.

From the shuttered window, the tiniest leakage of sunlight hung in the dark chamber like brilliant web-strands. The light of day provided its oblivion-didn"t it?-as it did their own souls, their own spirits, a sanctuary from the misery of their cursed and most obscene blight.

Like their savior, their only real freedom was the glorious dark...

Save us, I beg of thee, the Reverend thought.

A tear welled in his eye.

And past the minute webwork of light-in the haven of its own darkness- Something stirred.

"I wasn"t going to come by, but-"

Vicki"s words seemed to die of their own starvation, as though each were a little shrew expiring in its tracks.

"But what?" Phil asked after he let her in. He"d asked the question more out of his own mental famine. Her presence a.s.sailed him. Why had she come? What did she expect him to say? How did she perceive him?

She has every right in the world, he reminded himself, to hate my friggin" guts.

Had she come to tell him off? To unload on him in an outburst of anger and betrayal that had simmered in her for years? Most women would, he thought. He was the guy who had professed his love, and then abandoned her.

Yet she seemed composed, if not a little nervous. In her manner and the shades of her voice, Phil could not detect anything of the rage he imagined.

"Didn"t want to bother you-"

"It"s not a bother, for G.o.d"s sake," he replied so quickly he may have seemed irritated. "Christ, we almost-"

He bit the rest off. We almost got married, he nearly finished. And what a catastrophic thing that would have been to say. A pause, hard as concrete, floundered between them.

"You look good, Vicki," he said. "And it"s good to see you."

He expected some equally benign reply, but then he thought, How good can I look in crumpled pants and an old T-shirt? Yeah, d.i.c.khead, how good can it be for her to see me? The guy who walked away from her life and never looked back?

"I saw you last night," she said more quietly, "and I"m sure you saw me-at least I guess you did." She made a morose chuckle. "It"s probably pretty hard not to notice your former fiancee up on stage in a strip joint. I was going to come over to the bar and say something to you, but, well... Complications, you know?"

Complications? That could, mean anything, but to ask her to elaborate now would only make things more difficult for her; just coming here had to be difficult enough. "You want something to drink?" he asked instead, and opened the refrigerator. "I"ve got-uh..." The fridge was empty. "I"ve got some great imported sparkling tap water."

"No thanks," she laughed. "You remember me-I never touch the hard stuff."

Phil took a few seconds to really look at her then, though those few seconds ticked by like full minutes. She was dressed revealingly: a short, tight denim skirt and a glittery vermillion tanktop, very sheer and as tight. Where Susan was attractive in a plain and simple sense, Vicki"s looks could be likened to a caricature, every stereotypical trait of feminine desirability all flawlessly converged into one woman. Her light red hair hung straight just past her bare shoulders; whenever she turned her head, the hair shimmered like fine tinsel. Trace makeup accentuated the lines of her model"s face. Her deep sea-green eyes seemed huge, gemlike, and the faintest pastel lipstick highlighted a pert, full mouth. She was more beautiful than even Phil could remember. She seemed more fit, more trim, more toned of muscle than ever before, which made sense-dancing, even in a strip joint, proved a vigorous exercise. Long legs, sleek shoulders and arms, the keen neckline, all bare and a creamy white. Even the mistlike spray of freckles just above her b.r.e.a.s.t.s seemed a perfect embellishment, while the b.r.e.a.s.t.s themselves, obviously braless beneath the sparkling tank, were firm and full. In Phil"s long absence from Crick City, Vicki Steele had become a s.e.xist"s dream, a living monument to the numbers 38-24-36, a paragon.

And in all her beauty, perhaps that was the saddest part of all. That"s all she was now, in a sense, a body. Crushed by backwoods subjugation, trapped by her own upbringing and the indoctrinated fear to leave, her real womanhood had all but evaporated. The lot of her life had left her nothing else.

A queer smile came to her lips. Had she noticed Phil"s momentary appraisal of her? He hoped not; the last thing she needed in her life was another chump gaping at her, especially when the chump was her ex-fiance. She sat down in the ragtag chair by the dresser. Her skin seemed to whisper as she crossed her legs; she sat back lazily, looking at him.

"I heard you"re working for a landscaper now," she said.

Evidently Eagle had run his mouth, which was just what Phil wanted. And it was a d.a.m.n stroke of luck he"d hung up his shirt and gunbelt in the closet before she"d come in; his cover would"ve been blown before it started. "Yeah, part-time for now," he said. "Until I find something better."

"Around here? You"re lucky to have that." Her big green eyes took in more of the cramped room. "I guess it was about six months ago or so, I kind of heard that things didn"t work out for you on Metro."

"I got canned," Phil admitted immediately. "It"s a long story, and a boring one."

"Must have been a real b.u.mmer for you. Being a cop was what you wanted more than anything else in the world, wasn"t it? I mean, for the whole time we were together, that"s all you talked about."

Phil swallowed a lump. It was almost innocuous, the way she"d said for the whole time we were together. "It"s no big deal, all for the better really," he rebounded, lying. "Took me ten years to realize that being a cop wasn"t for me. I got tired real fast of seeing people get hurt, ripped off, and killed every day. You must know what I"m talking about, you were a cop, too."

"I was a town cop," she corrected, then recrossed her legs. "Not the same thing, really. But it was a good job."

This seemed the oddest of remarks. According to Mullins, there"d been no choice but to fire her for all manner of s.e.xual misconduct. She was obviously not cut out at all for police work; she"d made the transition from cop to prost.i.tute all too easily. Mullins" photographs proved that.

Didn"t they?

A grim smile surfaced on her lips. She relaxed back, closed her eyes, and sighed. "You always were such a gentleman, Phil. Aren"t you even going to ask?"

"Ask what?"

"Aren"t you the least bit curious even?"

Phil read what she was driving at, but to admit that would only increase the severity of this weird circ.u.mstance. Instead, and with not much conviction, he said, "I don"t know what you mean, Vicki."

Her frown drained all the prettiness out of her face at once. "I used to be a cop, Phil, and now I"m a stripper. Most people would think that"s a little bit weird, wouldn"t they? Don"t you want to know what happened?"

With more conviction this time, he replied, "Hey, that"s your business, none of mine. As long as you"re happy doing what you"re doing, then that"s all that matters."

In part-whisper, part-croak, and with her eyes still closed, she responded: "You think I"m happy doing this?"

Phil sat down on the edge of his bed, brows raised. He couldn"t summon a reply.

"I was like you, remember?" she continued. "I wanted to be a cop, and I was a good cop." A hesitation, an uneasy gulp. "You want to know why I"m not a cop now?"

I already do, Phil thought, but of course he couldn"t say that, not without blowing his cover completely. "So tell me what happened."

"Mullins blackballed me. From day one he was trying to get into my pants but, you know, I figured it was all a joke. Country b.u.mpkin small-town chief, just acting the part like any good ol" boy. But soon the joke stopped being funny. One night he tried to rape me, told me if I didn"t put out he"d fire me. I filed an hara.s.sment complaint with the state liaison office, but Mullins got it nixed, trumped up a bunch of c.r.a.p and phony doc.u.mentation, and then he fired me."

Phil stared at what she was saying as much as he stared at her. He"d like nothing more than to believe her, but how could he? Mullins" own claims of her on-duty s.e.xual negligence provided an undeniable corroboration with the photos that had been taken after her separation from the department. There could be no denying what the pictures showed-s.e.xual acts in public-and there could be no denying that Vicki Steele was the woman in the pictures.

"But I"ll bet that"s not what you heard, huh?" she whispered on. "I"ll bet you heard some snowjob about me turning tricks on duty, huh? Is that what you heard?"

"I never heard anything, Vicki," Phil lied again, protecting his cover. "I"ve only been back in town a month."

"Yeah, well, that was the word the b.a.s.t.a.r.d put out all over town and in my personnel file, that I "demonstrated social behavior unbecoming of an officer in general" and "engaged in acts of s.e.xual solicitation and prost.i.tution while in uniform." He even had "witnesses" turn in written statements and promises to testify if I took him to court. Next thing I knew I was on the street with no place to go. And no way any police department in the country would even consider hiring me. The son of a b.i.t.c.h ruined me, all because I wouldn"t f.u.c.k him."

The word f.u.c.k clanged like a cracked bell. But, again, Phil couldn"t believe her story. I saw the pictures, he grimly reminded himself. Too often in life, he knew, people changed for the worse, and Vicki Steele had to be a prime example. That"s why she came here today. To save face, to make an excuse now that she knew I was back in town. All he could do now was feel sorry for her.

And it made him feel ultimately s.h.i.tty, too, not just the tailspin her life had taken since he"d ended their relationship, but the acknowledgement of what he was doing to her right now. He was using her, wasn"t he? There could be no other word for it. Phil was pretending to be someone he wasn"t, and he was using her misfortune as a means to get deeper into his PCP leads.

She"s a perfect information dupe, he told himself. And I"m a perfect a.s.shole...

Vicki finally straightened up and opened her eyes. "You don"t believe me, do you?"

"I believe you," he lied yet again. He didn"t want to contemplate how many lies he"d told already. "I know all about getting blackballed, Vicki. One day I"ll tell you what happened to me on Metro. Same thing, different circ.u.mstances."

She sighed silently. Relief? Resignation? "I"ll bet you think I blame you, though, right?"

Finally here was a question he didn"t have to answer with a lie, though the topic was not an enlightening one. "You"d have every right to, Vicki. The main reason things went to h.e.l.l for us is because I wanted out of this town more than anything. I know that. And I don"t feel too good about the way things ended for us."

"Yeah, but at least you knew what you wanted, and you went for it. I was too insecure-too afraid-to think I could do better than Crick City. And look at me now..."

"I"m not exactly doing great myself," Phil tried to lighten things. "I gotta G.o.dd.a.m.n Master"s degree, and I"m making seven bucks an hour planting rosebushes and laying manure."

"You always manage to get around the issues, don"t you?" she said. "I guess that"s your way of being polite."

"What"s that?"

Her face hardened. For a moment she wasn"t pretty at all; she was ugly in a raving glare of self-disgust. "I"m a roadside stripper, Phil. I"m not gonna lie to you." The big gemlike green eyes struggled against sudden tears. "I"m a wh.o.r.e."

In an unbidden instant, part of Phil felt transported back to another time not really that long ago, a time when they were in love with each other and when the current state of their lives was so remote as to be unthinkable. He wanted to argue with her, to shake her around and bellow in her face that she should stop indicting herself and step out of the seamy ditch her life had fallen into. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and get your s.h.i.t together! he wanted to rant. All right, you fell down, so get the f.u.c.k back up and make a real life for yourself before it"s too late!

But he could say nothing of the sort, and he knew it. He needed her, for the case. He was a cop, and he had a job to do. He had to play along, or else he"d lose his best lead yet.

Yeah, my best lead. A girl I used to love. A girl I almost married...

"Excuse me," she said and abruptly stood. "I need to use your bathroom."

"Right in there," he pointed.

She went in and closed the door. He knew she was crying, which made him feel even more despicable. He was low enough to use her for the profit of the investigation. But beyond that, no matter how hard he rationalized it to Mullins or even to himself, he knew he would always be partly to blame for what had happened to her.

After several minutes, he began to pace his room. Several more and he began to worry.

He knocked on the bathroom door. "You okay, Vicki?"

"Yeah."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. I"ll be out in a sec."

And when she did indeed re-emerge from the bathroom, she seemed back in control, but- Oddly so.

Again, she looked neat as a pin, her posture perfect, every shining red hair in its place, but her eyes bore a glint now like ice. She seemed stolid, hard, when only a few minutes ago she"d been falling apart.

"Look, I"m sorry about that," she said.

"We all have bad moments, Vicki."

"I guess the real reason I came here was because I wanted you to know what happened, that"s all. I didn"t want you to think-"

"Don"t worry about it. I"m glad you stopped by."

Their eyes locked. For a moment the green ice cracked. "Really?"

"Sure. Look, the past is the past, right? We both got b.u.m raps, that"s life. Why don"t we try to put the past behind us, forget about all that and leave it lie? Let"s be friends, okay?"

Something like a repressed despair threatened to collapse her entire face, but she seemed to stave it off. "I"d really like that, Phil. I"d like that a lot, but-"

"So what"s the problem?"

"It"ll have to be a secret."

"A secret? Why?"

She steeled herself. "I"m married now, Phil," she said very coldly. She raised her left hand, flashed the wedding ring with a diamond on it the size of a pea. Then: "I"m married to Cody Natter."

He tried to manage his shock, tried to keep it from getting out and molesting the memory of how he used to feel about her.

"Still want to be friends?" she asked.

"Sure. I don"t care if you"re married to Elvis."

She let a smile eek out, gave him a final glance, then kissed him very lightly on the lips.

"See you around," she said and left.

His bewilderment held him in a momentary check. When he looked around the doorway and down the hall, she was already gone.

Cody. Natter"s. Wife. Each word smacked like a piton into stone. How could any man, however irredeemable, let his own wife dance in a strip joint and turn roadside tricks in pickup trucks. When Phil closed the door, he wanted to punch a hole in it. His anger raged like a huge beast trapped in a tiny cage. He thought he would explode.

And the emotion doubled when he went into the bathroom. Perhaps his cop"s sensitivities had tuned him in; anyone else wouldn"t have noticed it in a million years. But- "Oh, my G.o.d, Vicki, no no no-"

At the corner of the old porcelain sink, the faintest sprinkling of diminutive white dust lingered. He knew what it was even before he rubbed a trace across his upper gum and felt the numb, cold tingle.

Cocaine. No wonder Natter got her stripping and turning tricks so fast. He got her hooked on c.o.ke...