But it wasn't real. It was just models in your brain.
"I think you'd better go home for the day," Ms. Godfrey said. "You look as if you could use some rest."
"I've got it figured out now," she said to Michael that night. "It must have been something to do with the UPS-the uninterruptible power supply. That's a kind of battery that keeps the computers going when the power goes out."
"Oh, right," said Michael, who knew very little about computers but would never admit it.
"That's what kept the computer going, but then somehow I managed to blow the whole system," Jenny said. "That knocked the power out, and all the rest of it was in my mind."
"You must have looked pretty funny holding that cord," Michael said.
They talked about what had happened to him and the others that afternoon. He and Dee and Audrey had gone postering together and had covered most of the area between Ramona and Anchor streets. They hadn't found anything.
Jenny told him what she'd told Dee and Audrey earlier. She was okay now. She'd slept all afternoon. Her mother had wanted to take her to the doctor, but Jenny had said no.
She was very proud of herself for realizing it had all been in her mind. She planned to stay calmer in the future.
"Well, that's good," Michael said. His voice sounded surprisingly weak for somebody whose theory had been confirmed. "Uh, Jenny-"
"What?"
"Oh, nothing. See you tomorrow. Take care of yourself."
"You, too," Jenny said, a little startled. "Bye."
Michael stared at the cordless phone he'd just clicked off. Then he glanced uneasily at his bedroom window. He wondered if he should have told Jenny -but Jenny had enough to worry about.
Besides, there was no reason to do anything to tarnish his own brilliant theory. It was just battle fatigue, and he was as subject to it as anyone else.
Stress. Tension. In his own case combined with a rather nervous temperament. Michael had always claimed to be an unashamed coward.
That would account for the feeling he'd had all day of being watched. And there was nothing really moving outside that window. It was a second-floor apartment, after all.
Audrey stretched in her Christian Dior nightgown and deposited herself more haphazardly across the peach satin sheets. Even after forty-five minutes in the Jacuzzi her feet hurt. She was sure she was getting calluses.
Worse, she couldn't shake the strange sensation she'd had ever since this afternoon. It was the feeling Audrey usually had when entering a room-of eyes on her. Only these eyes today hadn't been admiring. They had been watchful-and malicious. She'd felt as if something were following her.
Stalking her.
Probably just the remnants of yesterday's fright, There was nothing to worry about-she was safe at home. In bed.
Audrey stretched again and her mind wandered. Eyes... hmm. No eyes now. C'est okay. Va bine.
She slept.
And dreamed, pleasantly. She was a cat. Not a repulsive scroungy cat like Jenny's, but an elegant Abyssinian. She was curled up with another cat, getting a cat-bath.
Audrey smiled responsively, ducking her head, exposing the nape of her neck to the seductive feeling. The other cat's tongue was rough but nice. It must be a big cat, though, she thought, half-waking. Maybe a tiger. Maybe-With a shriek Audrey bolted straight up in bed, She was awake-but she could swear the sensation had followed her out of the dream. She had felt a rough tongue licking her neck.
She clapped a hand to the back of her neck and felt the dampness there.
A strange, musky smell filled the room.
Audrey almost knocked the bedside lamp over getting it turned on. Then she stared around wildly, looking for the thing that had been in her bed.
Dee woke with a start. At least she thought she woke-but she couldn't move.
Someone was leaning over her.
The room was very dark. It shouldn't have been, because Dee liked to sleep with the window open, the curtains drawn back. Breathing fresh air, not the stale refrigerated stuff that came out of the air conditioner.
Tonight she must have forgotten to open the curtains. Dee couldn't tell because she couldn't move her head. She could only see what was directly above her-the figure.
It was a thick darkness against the thinner darkness of the room. It was a human shape, upside-down because it was leaning over from the headboard side.
Dee's heart was pounding like a trip-hammer. She could feel her lips draw back from her teeth savagely.
Then she realized something horrifying.
Chapter 7
The headboard side-the figure was leaning over her from