pointed to the yellow pad on the table, Thank God you're here.
David, my worst fear is that the others have destroyed James and my body with him. This may be the only body I now possess.
No, I don't think so, he said with convincing equanimity. Your little body borrower has left quite a trail. But come, get out of these wet clothes. You're catching cold.
What do you mean, trail?
You know we keep track of such crimes. Now, please, the clothes.
More crimes after New York? I asked excitedly. I let him coax me towards the fireplace, immediately glad of the warmth. I pulled off the damp sweater and shirt. Of course there was nothing to fit me in my various closets. And I realized I had forgotten my valise somewhere on Louis's property last night. New York was Wednesday night, was it not?
My clothes will fit you, David said, immediately snatching the thought from my mind. He headed for a mammoth leather suitcase in the corner.
What's happened What makes you think it's James?
Has to be, he answered, popping open the suitcase and removing several folded garments, and then a tweed suit very like his own, still on its hanger, which he laid over the nearest chair. Here, change into these. You're going to catch your death.
Oh, David, I said, continuing to undress. I've almost caught my death repeatedly. In fact, I've spent my whole brief mortal life nearly dying. The care of this body is a revolting nuisance; how do living people endure this endless cycle of eating, pissing, sniveling, defecating, and then eating again! When you mix in fever, headache, attacks of coughing, and a runny nose, it becomes a penitential sentence. And prophylactics, good Lord. Removing the ugly little things is worse than having to put them on! Whatever made me think I wanted to do this! The other crimes-when did they take place! When is more important than where.
He had fallen into staring at me again, too purely shocked to answer. Mojo was giving him the eye now, sizing him up more or less, and offering a friendly lick of his pink tongue to David's hand. David petted him lovingly, but continued to stare blankly at me.
David, I said, as I took off the wet socks. Speak to me. The other crimes! You said that James had left a trail.
It's so wildly uncanny, he said in a stunned voice. I have a dozen pictures of this face. But to see you inside it. Oh, I simply couldn't imagine it. Not at all.
When did this fiend strike last?
Ah . . . The last report was from the Dominican Republic. That was, let me see, two nights ago.
Dominican Republic! Why in the world would he go there?
Exactly what I would like to know. Before that he struck near Bal Harbour in Florida. Both times it was a high-rise condominium, and entry was the same as in New York- through the glass wall. Furniture smashed to pieces at all three crime scenes; wall safes ripped from their moorings; bonds, gold, jewelry taken. One man dead in New York, a bloodless corpse, of course. Two women left drained in Florida, and a family killed in Santo Domingo, with only the father drained in classic vampire style.
He can't control his strength. He's blundering about like a robot!
Exactly what I thought. It was the combination of destructiveness and sheer force which first alerted me. The creature's unbelievably inept! And the whole operation is so stupid. But what I can't figure is why he's chosen these locations for his various thefts. Suddenly he broke off and turned away, almost shyly.
I realized I had stripped off all the garments and was standing there naked, and this had produced in him a strange reticence, and a near blush to his face.
Here, dry socks, he said. Don't you know better than to go about in soaking wet garments? He tossed the socks to me without looking up.
I don't know much of anything, I said. That's what I've discovered. I see what you mean about the locations. Why in the world would he journey to the Caribbean when he might steal to his heart's content in the suburbs of Boston or New York?
Yes. Unless the cold is giving him considerable discomfort, but does that make sense?
No. He doesn't feel it that keenly. It's just not the same.
It felt good to pull on the dry shirt and pants. And these garments did fit, though they were loose in a rather