"No, Hank. I want to go home. Now!" She tried to pull her hand from his grasp, but he clamped down on her fin-gets, causing her to flinch in pain.

When she moved closer to him to relieve the pressure, he pulled her into an awkward embrace.

"You're hurting me!"

"So, now you'll to me?" He squeezed her fingers again for emphasis.

"Of--of course," She disguised her fear with a shaky smile, hoping to conceal the rapid calculations that filled 74 A Killer Smile her mind.

"I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me. Of--of course, it's a romantic idea." She used her free hand to stroke his peach-fuzzed cheek, playing for time.

In the beginning of their relationship, she hadn't recognized the early signs of his instability. As his acts he-came less capricious and more unbalanced, she decided the relationship had been a mistake.

His actions tonight merely drove the point home.

Hank released his viselike grip, but the vestiges of sus-pi don in his expression made her walt make her move.

Her innocence--no, she should use t! e proper term--her ignorance had

placed her in a delicate, perhaps potentially dangerous situation.

Her only a well-planned, well, thought-out escape. She started with a tentat'rye smile.

He grinned in return and seemed to relax.

"Ellen, my love, I've planned a wonderful evening for us. First, ? herin a Paris car6, followed by a stroll down the Cham Elyse. You do loveFrench food, don't you?" , Her stomach churned.

"Of course I do." Keeping a firm grip on her arm, Hank pulled her theaisle toward the stage.

"I had a hard time getting wine. I had to bribe a senior into buyingmade wide theatrical gestures, playing to live audience of one.

"Why in the world does such an arbitrary age for drinking? Will I he anymature at twenty-one than I am right now at twenty?" glared at her,evidently irritated at her lack of "Well, will IT' If he' had said themoon was purple, she would agreed. Ellen knew she'd do anything to keephurting her again. She also she had to i A Killer Smile 75 and choosethe ideal moment to run. Her smile was strained.

"You're very mature, Hank," she lied.

He nodded.

"I know. That's why you're attracted to me. Maturity, good looks, plusan intelligence that's light-years past the other guys around here. Theydream of scoring, cutting notches in their bedposts. Me, I consider theromance of making love." He paused and turned his head slightly.

"We will make love, won't we?"

The curious tilt of his head, combined with the odd sound of hisplaintive question, gave her the final motivation to put her plan intoaction.

She started with what she hoped was a seductive glance. "You're the onlyman for me, Hank. Close your eyes, darling."

A look of rapture crossed his face, and he followed her instructions.

When he closed his eyes, she placed both hands on his chest and pushedwith every ounce of strength she could muster. He lost his balance andfell backward over the theater seats, giving Ellen a chance to turn and run.

He hell owed like a wounded animal as he scrambled to his feet. Ellen ran toward the nearest door and pushed her way backstage. Scramblingthrough the cluster of curtains hanging in the wings, she deliberatelyknockeft down tables and props in her wake, hoping to slow Hank down.Skirting around the rear stage wall, Ellen headed for an exit to thealley only to discover the double doors chained and padlocked. She edgedalong the scenery flats, trying to find the stairs that led back to theauditorium.

"Ellen, you can't run away from me!" His scream echoed through the emptybuilding.

"You can't run away from love!"

She wasted no energy with useless retorts, and, instead, clawed her waybetween the canvas frames, looking for eia Killer Smile A Killer Smilether an exit or a hiding place. Stumbling against the side of achain-link storage area, she slipped through a narrow gap between the.gate and its post. She ducked into the shadows of a substantial-lookingfireplace, realizing it was made of nothing more than' papier-mtich6 andbalsam.

"Elden, where are you?" He sang the words like a child playinghide-and-seek.

"Olly, olly oxen free!"

"Ellen covered her mouth, blocking the scream which threatened to erupt.She closed her eyes, praying her thundering heart wouldn't give her away.

His voice bounced from the shaky edge of whimsy to frenzied hostility.

"I'm tired of playing this little game, Ellen. Come out here. Now?" 'The room grew deathly quiet, and her fears mounted in the fatal s'dence.She huddled by the fireplace, interpreting every little sound asimpending danger, seeing Hank in every shadow. She even believed shesmelled smoke.

Moments later, she heard the crackling of flames and saw the real smokerise lazily to the ceiling. ELLEN WIPED AWAY a tear.

"God only knows how I got out. I made it to the door and stumbled into acampus security cop, investigating the smoke."

"And what about Hank?" Jack asked in little more than a whisper.

A sudden specter haunted her, the vision of a man's face, pale beneaththe soot. She remembered the fire fighter's labored struggles tobreathe, the blood streaming into face. For one long moment, two facesmerged in her mind.

Not Jack and Hank, but Jack and the dying fire fighter. Ellen pushed themental image away, daring herself to stay calm, in control.

"Hank survived." She swallowed hard.

"But during the course of the fire, two fire fighters were killed andthree others were injured."

Jack's face tightened.

"The next time I saw Hank, we were in court. I was prepared to testifyagainst him, but the trial was stopped when the judge reali,ed how sickhe really was. When the prosecution recommended institutionalization,his defense team quickly agreed. After all, it meant a couple of yearsof therapy rather than twelve to fdteen in Leavenworth. Hank's ownlawyer descr/bed him as" -- Ellell shivered "--uncontrollably obsessed."While she drew in a shaky breath to calm herself, her mind raced ahead,reliving the pain and frustrations.

Obsession.

It ran in his family.

H/s parents were obsessed with obtaining his freedom, no mat let whetherhe was guilty or not. Hank's fundamentalist mother had stood in the courtroom and pointed an accusing finger at Ellen, calling her a host ofat; chalc names, the least of which were "a scheming harlot" and "thatJezebel." Hank's father kept stating at her throughout the arraionmentwith a mixture of disbelief and curiosity. She heard him speaking with anews reporter, saying he didn't understand his 'son's attraction to "arather plain girl with little if any appeal," Ellen still remembered Mr.Bartholomew's couspirato. rial grin and his booming voice bouncingthrough the marble halls as he made no attempt to speak quietly.

"My boy's dalxi much better-looking girls than this Coster gal, oneswith big" -- he paused for a theatrical moment "--personalifiesv' mindand return to the cabin. When she opened them again, she found herselfclutching the rocking chair. Swala Killer Smile lowing hard, she madeherself release the worn wooden arms and try to pick up only the mostessential threads of her tortuous story.

"After the fervor of the pres died down, we became yesterday's news.

I had almost a whole year of peace the threats began."

Jack looked up.

"Threats?"

Ellen nodded.

"I started receiving roses every week. No note. After a month they camewith a card.

"Thinking Of you." No signature. It continued for a couple more weeksThen one day, I received a dozen wilted roses. florist, and he told methe person who ordered the fiower specifically requested the roses bedead. When I forced th issue, the man finally admitted the order camefrom Dr. H. Bartholomew of the Mountain Point Hospital."

" What did you do?"

"Ignored it. What else could I do? I was supposed to protected from hismadness while he was in Some treatment. Tennis courts, gourmet food andsions with a doctor who credited his problem to was the lead story inPsychosis Today."

She looked and discovered her hands knotted in white-knuckled "But no matter how unorthodox his treatment should have been safe!"

Jack leaned forwnrd in his seat, teting his dbows on 1 knees. When helooked up at her, his expression of sympathy seemed genuine to her.

She continued.

"This went on for two more I graduated from college. His parents stophim.

I don't think they ever believed ho was They blamed evg on me. I wassupposed to girl from the poor family lusting after their fortune. see,the Bartholomews were well-off. They time to use their weth to buy theirson's release, and A Killer Smile 79 guess eventually it worked.Luckily, his court-appointed doctor stalled the paperwork long enough towarn me, before Hank left the hospital. Shortly after his release, thefirst bomb went off."

Jack glanced up, wearing a confused expression.

"You mean bombshell, as in revelation?"

She shook her head.

"No. I mean bomb--as in plastic explosives. When the next delivery offlowers came, I threw them out without opening the box. It was the onlything that saved my life. The bomb squad found pieces of my metal trashcan over a forty-foot radius. At that point I decided it would he betterif I stayed out of sight for a while. I packed my things and moved outof my apartment. That night a suspicious fire broke out near my frontdoor and gutted the entire complex. Three people were killed and sixteeninjured."

"You think Hank was behind it?"

She shrugged.

"The fire inspector said it was starll with the same type of incendiarydevice found in the box of flowers. A few weeks later Hank contacted me. I don't know how he found where I was hiding, but he did.

"It was a very strange call. He rambled on about our past and my'betrayal' of his love. He made threats" -- she swallowed the suddenwave of nausea the memories evoked "--about what he was going to do tome. I tried to put it all in context--an insane man making sickstatements, Until ..."

Ellen tried to continue, but her voice gave out. It usually did at thatpoint in her memories. But this time was. different. This time, shewasn't idling the story in order to wallow in self-pity, but to inform.

She tried again.

"Until ..." The words clogged in her throat.

A Killer Smile Jack lifted his head and stared at her for a moment. "Until what?" he prompted. His voice was a whisper, soft, strained andsounding for a moment exactly like Hank's.

Ellen closed her eyes. No, she told herself. Hank wouldn't ask me why.

Hank would provide the answer, telling me all the gory details, braggingabout his insight and talent.

"Ellen?"

When she felt a light touch on her knee, she opened her eyes.

"I have m know. You must tell me."

It was the look of shock in his expression that gave Ellen the impetusshe needed to continue. Pushing her feet against the floor, she began aslow, very night, Hank's parents died in an explosion. At looked like anaccident, like their furnace blew up. the investigators startedexamining the scene, and found evidence of an explosive device and atimer."

She increased the rhythm of the rocking the inmm'ty of her story. "Nobod} take his anger out on them. After all, th supported him.Believed him. Theu I realized death actually meant to him. All of asudden, the financial means to make his threats come true. my tel..ephoue number. How long would it be until he my address? So I ran away."

Jack reached out for her hand, but she shifted knowing she couldn't

suffer anyone's touch at ment.

"Ellen, how long have you been here?"

She glanced up, trying to focus on him veil of tears. The rocking chair

slowed't "About four years."

Killer Smile "Good God!" Jack rubbed his bristled jaw with his hand and

crossed over to the window by her drawing board. After amoment of s'dence, he spoke in a hoarse whisper.