It was a harsh gagging sound that Wilfrud regained consciousness to. Grainy, sooty vision began to fire in his eyes; each time his heart beat, a heavy thud of pain throbbed in his head. In a few more moments, he could see. . . .

Ethel lay naked on her back in some deep, moonlit clearing. A beefy man humped vigorously between her sprawled legs, his overalls pulled down to show pasty b.u.t.tocks.

The atrocity raged but for a split second before Wilfrud's mind managed to separate the horror from logic. What happened to me? The pain in his head felt like a nail had been driven into his brain. He and Ethel had been gathering morels, hadn't they? Yes, the clan cookout was coming up. And she'd dashed off into darker woods with her divining bone. That's when I found her, he remembered. I tripped over her and- That figure . . . All Wilfrud recalled was the stocky shadow before he'd been hit in the head with something, and now he was waking up . . . to this.

Wilfrud realized now that he'd been tied to a tree, his wrists bound behind the trunk with rope, and a shorter length of rope had been tied around his head-between his teeth-to gag him. In horrid glimpses, he noticed that Ethel had been gagged similarly. All either of them could do was croak out some feeble noises, nothing even close to a scream that could be heard by others.

The man raping his wife looked over his shoulder while his fornication didn't miss a beat. "Oh, looky there, sweetie. Your husband's finally woked his old a.s.s up." A chunky face grinned back. "Hey, Wilfrud? You don't mind me raping the holy ever-livin' s.h.i.t outta this old bag you got fer a wife, do ya?"

Wilfrud's eyes bugged in rage; he recognized the portly face at once: Junior, one of the Caudill boys. Wilfrud struggled uselessly against his bonds, the rope digging into his wrists, and when he tried to shout, the only vocal objection he could muster was more of the same croaking.

Worse were Ethel's croaks. Junior was choking her with the leather cord of the pontica stone around her neck. He'd twist the cord down tight till her face darkened and her tongue began to protrude, but just before she'd either pa.s.s out or die, he'd release it-to rape her harder. He wanted her alive for the entire ordeal.

But why was he doing this?

And what would happen when he was done?

Junior began to grunt, twisting the pontica cord harder, and then his pelvic thrusts slowed and stopped.

He straggled to his feet, hitched up the overalls, and dusted himself off. "Ain't exactly the best piece a' a.s.s I've had, but not bad fer an old box. What is this b.i.t.c.h, Wilfrud? About sixty? Me, I prefer 'em a tad younger, like about ten, but in a pinch? Any piece a' a.s.s is better than none, huh?"

Junior belted out a piglike noise that sufficed for a laugh, but then his eyes darted back down to Ethel, who now lay utterly still. "Aw, s.h.i.t! Don't tell me she's f.u.c.kin' dead! I need her still kickin' for the rest a' the party !" He dropped to his knees, slapped her face several times, then put an ear to her bare chest to listen for a heartbeat. "Whew!" he said next. "Ya lucked out, Wilfrud. Her ticker's still tickin'." He stood back up. "Let's give her a splash or two a' water in the face, to spark her up. . . ."

Wilfrud roared in his throat through the gag, surging against the bonds. Junior had opened his fly and was now urinating liberally into Ethel's face. The revolting process did indeed revive her, soaking her.

"Well, there goes another six-pack!"

By now Wilfrud was oblivious to the pain of the flesh around his wrists grinding away. He brokenly barked out through his gag, "Cut me loose! Cut me loose!"

Junior zipped back up. "What's that, Wilfrud? Cain't rightly understand ya, what with the gag. Oh! You want me to cut ya loose?" Another piglike guffaw. "Come on! Why in tarnation would I wanna do that?"

Now Junior leaned against a tree, arms casually crossed. "You don't even know this, Wilfrud, but in yer own little way you n' this creepy old tramp are playin' a part in a big plan that'll make things around here a d.a.m.n sight better fer everybody." He scratched his belly. "Well, I should say almost everybody, 'cos things just got a d.a.m.n sight worse fer you and the little missus." Junior looked up at the moon in the sky. "And I'm afraid it's gettin' late. Time for this party to end, don't ya think?"

Ethel shuddered in the dirt, hacking up urine through the gag. Without a moment's hesitation, Junior reached behind the tree and pulled out an inordinately large fire ax, then stepped up, parted his legs, hoisted it up over his head in a great arc- "Nooo!" Wilfrud gagged.

-and- Thhhhwunk!

-dropped the ma.s.sive blade into Ethel's belly. Then- Thhhwunk! Thhhwunk!

-two more downward plunges of the blade cut her naked body in half in a straight line just above her hips.

Her bare heels thunked in the soil, white legs quivering. The upper half convulsed, back trying to arch reflexively.

Wilfrud was choking on his tongue, straining ever harder against his bonds, but all for nothing. He choked out some final, faulty bellows as the whites of his eyes hemorrhaged red in outrage.

Junior grinned, his own eyes beaming down. He set the ax aside. "How's that for a piece a' work?"

Ethel's legs finally fell still, while the upper half of her body remained miraculously alive. She actually managed to flip herself over and began to crawl toward Junior.

"b.i.t.c.h's got some s.p.u.n.k; I'll give her that," Junior remarked. He grabbed the pendant cord, hoisted her up, then looped the cord over the crook of a broken branch. He stood back to watch as Ethel slowly strangled against the tree, innards uncoiling.

"G.o.d, that was fun. . . ."

By now Wilfrud's horror and exertion left him limp. Junior unsheathed a buck knife and approached. "Her ticket's punched, so I guess it's time to punch yours too, Wilfrud."

"Uuugh!" went Wilfrud.

Junior pigstuck him low with the knife, one deep jab just below the navel.

"But I got tell ya," Junior went on, "all this choppin' and chokin' and stabbin's got my dog barkin' again, if you know what I mean." He chuckled, showing brown teeth. "And there ain't exactly anyone around who's gonna call me a pervert, huh?"

Wilfrud groaned in the lowest agony, blood and bile eddying from his wound.

Junior shrugged and approached the sprawled legs on the ground. "So I just say . . . what the h.e.l.l!"

He lowered his overalls again, then crawled between the legs, and this was what Wilfrud Hild got to watch for the remaining ten minutes it took him to die.

Six.

(I).

Looks like she's sleeping in, Patricia realized. It seemed understandable. Patricia had risen early to the sound of cicadas and chirping finches. She'd left her window open last night, a luxury she was beginning to enjoy-the fresh night air flowing over her as she slept, and no police sirens and ambulances, like at home. And unlike yesterday morning, she didn't waken feeling guilty and embarra.s.sed. She recalled snippets of intense s.e.xual dreams, but this time her frolics didn't involve making love to Ernie in front of her husband. Simply strangers this time, and dreaming of strangers didn't const.i.tute infidelity. Just a bunch of silly, dirty dreams, she dismissed them. Everybody has them. Byron has them. I'm not going to feel guilty. It was a solid resolve to begin the day with.

But at one point during the night, had she awakened and imagined herself being watched by a peeper through the window? She even recalled masturbating again, to a delicious climax, but that had to have been a dream too.

And dreams are harmless, so I'm not going to stress over it.

After she'd dressed for the day, she noticed Ernie's door open, and when she peeked inside she found it empty. That was when she went upstairs to check on Judy-to find her still heavily asleep. Last night she'd eventually pa.s.sed out, but maybe now that Dwayne's ashes were officially scattered, Judy could put her despair behind her and focus on pursuing the positive things in her life. I can only hope, Patricia thought, and gently closed the door.

Back downstairs, she rejected the idea of making herself breakfast, and instead headed out to the backyard. Something she couldn't identify seemed to be pushing her out of the house, and she could only suppose she was ignoring what "home" had always reminded her of, and, in place of that, she was enjoying the beautiful natural environment here. This was opposite of the city; this was refreshingly different from what she'd grown so used to looking at every day in D.C. She stepped out onto the fieldstone path and stood stunned for a moment. A cloudless sky hung overhead, the clearest blue, which only made the sun seem more vibrant. The patches of gra.s.s between the flower beds almost glowed, they were so green, and the flowers themselves were explosions of razor-sharp reds, yellows, and violets. Yeah, I guess coming back home this time isn't going to be as bad as I thought. . . . Perhaps she was evolving past her trauma, and was proving Dr. Sallee wrong in his insistence that she should avoid Agan's Point at all costs. Racy dreams, an inexplicable burst of s.e.xual awareness, masturbating far more than usual? This was so unlike her, but today she was feeling better and better about it.

She kicked her sandals off to stride barefoot across the more expansive tracts of gra.s.s farther off in the backyard. I don't know where I'm going and . . . I don't need to know, she realized. Finally a day without an agenda.

Then she thought: The Point.

Why not? She'd spend the morning walking around the Point.

More stretches of deliriously green gra.s.s took her away from the house. Stands of high trees seemed to funnel her down. If anything the Point appeared more beautiful than she could ever remember it, and it seemed much larger. Agan's Point could be described as a wedge of verdant land that shoved itself out into Virginia's widest estuary off the Chesapeake Bay, while the other edge of the wedge was determined by a sprawling river. She hopped over several meager creeks, noticing salamanders and toads, then found herself wandering the path that marked the river side of the Point. Across the water, next, she could see several office trailers and what appeared to be foundation molds for the construction project that would hopefully instill the local economy with more money from a new, well-heeled community of residents. Nothing seemed to be going on at the project today, though: ce- . ment mixers sat static, tractors and backhoes unmanned. When a door on one of the office trailers opened, a man walked out toward a parked pickup truck, and Patricia could tell by the short, bright-blond hair and purposeful gait that it was the man she'd met last night at the reception, Gordon Felps, the executive of the entire construction endeavor. Not quite sure what to make of him, she thought. Her sister clearly found him enlivening, but Patricia's own first impression was one of suspicion. He's a businessman trying to throw money at Judy, to get her land, she reminded herself. I don't care how much money he's got . . . I don't trust him. She half frowned and half smiled at herself. But then again, I'm a lawyer. I'm not supposed to trust anybody, because n.o.body trusts me. Across the river the distant form of Gordon Felps paused at the open truck door, spotted her, and waved. Patricia put on her best fake smile and waved back.

A flock of crows squawked overhead, and at the crest of the riverbed she noticed b.u.t.terflies sitting idly atop tall blades of gra.s.s. Down here near the water the always-heard but seldom-seen cicadas flew to and fro in dramatic numbers. Patricia felt staggered by this outburst of raw nature that she'd banished from her mind long ago. But then she frowned at the dichotomy. Nature untouched right here . . . and another condo project over there. It was the way of the world, she supposed, and as a real estate attorney she was as much a culprit as Felps.

She dawdled on, the sun in her face. A half mile of ambling through the woods eventually brought her to the widest spur of the Point-Squatterville was the area's nickname. There, surrounded by trees, was their little plantation; so to speak, a crude but close-knit community of shacks, tin sheds, and age-old trailers. Set in the background stood the Stanherd house; it was the oldest dwelling on the Point, and it looked it, dating back to the original plantation days when Virginia broke from the Union. A rickety wraparound porch defined the home's shape of sloping angles and high, peaked rooftops. A century of periodic whitewash left its wood plank walls more gray than white, shingles blown off in storms had been replaced with cedar slats and tar, and most of the functional shutters had long since been nailed shut. Judy had no use for the house, so she let Everd Stanherd and his wife live there for nothing, along with several other elder couples of the clan. Judy, in fact, charged no rent of any kind to any of the Squatters; nor did she charge for electricity-which was wired to every dwelling-nor water or sewage, which was provided by the communal washhouse where Squatters could shower, get water for their homes, and go to the bathroom. It wasn't much, but it was better than welfare, and the Squatters themselves couldn't have seemed more content with their lives here, however unsophisticated those lives were.

Looks like happy simplicity to me, she mused, looking down at the ramshackle community. Women were taking laundry out to hang on myriad clotheslines, chatting, laughing amongst themselves as they worked. Patricia thought a moment then. Was it really happy simplicity, or ignorance and oblivion that milled before her? It was easy for an elitist att.i.tude to dismiss the Squatters as subcitizens with no education and unable to achieve anything more in life. Maybe this happy simplicity is just holding them back, blocking them from any real achievement.

It was an idealistic concern, to say the least. You're a metropolitan lawyer, Patricia, she told herself. Don't pretend to be a sociologist. . . .

She saw no men down among the quiet network of trailers and shacks, but of course she wouldn't. Most of the male Squatters would be out on the water right now, hauling in today's take on the crabbing boats Judy provided. Maybe it's just like anything else, she considered. Give and take. Judy gives them a free place to live, and they work to keep her company profitable. Judy owned the boats, the land, the processing plant and warehouse and delivery trucks-everything. And. the Squatters worked it all for her.

A closer look showed children prancing around their mothers and/or grandmothers, squealing with innocent exuberance as they played tag amid the sheet-flapping labyrinth of clotheslines. Older children emerged from the woods with armfuls of wild berries, edible greens, duck eggs, and even rabbits and squirrels they'd caught in traps handmade by their fathers. Other children returned with stray firewood they'd culled from the forest; though the shacks and trailers all had electricity, the Squatters often preferred to cook their family meals outside in cauldrons braced over communal fires and long barbecue pits. What Patricia was looking at now seemed like a hidden crosshatch commune that gladly let the modern world slide over them without notice. Primitive yet undeniably efficient, tribal yet organized. It was a system that worked.

She traipsed down the hillock toward an outer footpath, and when she turned the corner around the washhouse, several Squatter boys-ten to twelve years old, they appeared-broke off in the opposite direction the instant they noticed her. What was that all about? she wondered without much interest. It was as though she'd surprised them; they ran off the way children did when caught doing something bad. But what? She made her way along the white-painted brick wall that formed the rear of the washhouse. The long, clean wall stood unblemished, except . . .

Hmm . . .

A squint showed her there was a blemish of sorts. She walked up closer. What is that? The wall seemed to bear a single pock; the closer she got, the more she thought she heard something. A steady hiss.

And voices?

Patricia wasn't sure.

She looked right at the "blemish." It was a hole, not even a half inch wide, drilled into the mortar between two of the wall's cinder blocks.

And she realized the hiss was a running shower.

A peephole, she knew. She put her eye to the hole and looked in. Three hardy Squatter girls in their late teens stood in the long shower room, sudsing themselves with soap, and chatting and giggling obliviously. This would explain the fleeing youngsters; Patricia had caught them spying on the older girls inside, and though she didn't know the boys at all, she was certain they knew who she was: the sister of the woman who gave them a place to live and provided jobs for their parents.

No doubt this peephole had been used for some time for such shenanigans; she couldn't help but notice what could only be tracks of dried s.e.m.e.n streaking the wall beneath the hole. She smiled to herself then, amused. Boys will be boys, she realized.

She walked on, but for some reason felt distracted now. By what? The thrumming cicada trills seemed to wash in and out of her head, and in some strange way urged her to recall the hiss of the shower.

Peepholes. Peeping. Voyeurs.

It was harmless enough, sure-just a few boys about to enter p.u.b.erty, following their hormonal curiosities. So what was bothering her?

My dream, she remembered then.

Last night she'd dreamed of being spied on herself, hadn't she? Only slivers of the dream seemed vivid, while most of it had turned to fog by now. I dreamed that someone was watching me from the window, she remembered, while I was touching myself. The more she thought about it, the more clearly it came to mind. She remembered being even more turned on when she'd realized someone was watching; her voyeur remained unidentified, yet the longer she knew he was watching, the more aroused she became, and it hadn't taken long for her climax to overwhelm her.

The only thing that remained unclear was the sequence of events. Was I masturbating in the dream, she asked herself, or was I masturbating for real, after I woke up from the dream?

Probably the latter, she suspected now. The spate of dirty dreams? s.e.x with Ernie while her husband watched (more exhibitionism)? s.e.x with strangers? The sudden flux of heightened s.e.xual moods since she'd arrived ? To the most secret part of herself, she admitted it all now. She couldn't recall a time when she'd felt so s.e.xually stoked than over the last two days, and it only reminded her of the senselessness of it all. Agan's Point symbolized her rape-the ugliest and most unarousing thing to ever happen to her. So why don't I feel unaroused now that I'm back?

Her musings stretched. She couldn't help it; she couldn't get it out of her head. Now she imagined herself in the Squatters' shower room, alone, and somehow knowing she was being watched from the peephole. That knowledge made her desire burn harder. The fantasy coc.o.o.ned her; she could not only see herself standing naked in the stark-white, brick-walled room, she could feel her hand gliding the bar of soap between and around her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, then down her belly and up between her legs. Soon she was dressed in a suit of lather, her pink nipples and the tuft of soft red pubic hair the only things breaking the surface of the soap's white froth. She stared fast at the hole in the wall; some ethereal force seemed to emanate from it like a wizard's totem. Now her hands were sliding all over herself-she was no longer washing; she was making love to herself, her nerves winding up, her nipples en-gorging. Then she stepped back into the cool spray, the lather sloughing off her skin down into the drain between her feet.

In the hole she could see the unblinking eye. . . .

Come in here, she panted to the hole. She parted her legs. Her hands splayed her s.e.x. Whoever you are, come in here. . . .

She closed her eyes, waiting, her fingers teasing herself. She was almost there already. Her b.r.e.a.s.t.s felt hot, twice their normal size. The bladelike sensations between her legs nearly toppled her over, and then from behind the large calloused hands of her unseen voyeur slipped around under her arms to her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, and when they squeezed she began to- "Howdy, Patricia. You're sure up early."

The fantasy snapped like a broomstick across someone's knee. Patricia spun in place, bristling in stifled shock. Ernie was striding across the gra.s.s, jeaned and workbooted, a toolbox in tow.

"Ernie. I didn't see you coming," she faltered.

He hoisted the box. "I was just cuttin' across. Judy wanted me to go to Squatterville to turn the electricity off on a few of the shacks."

Patricia had barely recovered from her startlement. That was the most vivid daydream of my life! She brought a stray hand to the bottom of her throat. I hope I'm not blushing. . . . The fantasy hadn't lasted long enough for her to see the face of her imaginary peeping Tom.

Had she hoped it was Ernie?

He chuckled, looking c.o.c.keyed at her. "You okay?"

"Daydreaming," she muttered back. "What were you saying? You had to turn off the electricity?"

"Just to three of the Squatter shacks. No point in electricity going into an empty place."

"What do you mean?"

He set the toolbox down and crossed his arms. "Well, things ain't changed much since you moved outta the Point. Back then, a' course, there weren't quite as many Squatters. But unlike back then, it seems that a lot of 'em are leavin'."

"Leaving-as in leaving the Point?" she asked.

Ernie nodded. Somehow the streak of sweat going down the center of his tight T-shirt struck her as s.e.xy, and the way his long hair was slightly disheveled, like he'd just gotten out of bed. "Three of 'em have left just in the past week, and eight or ten more since the beginning of the month. Kinda strange . . . or maybe not, really. Just 'cos I love livin' on the Point don't mean everyone does. Look at you."

"But where did these Squatters go?" she asked the logical question.

Ernie shrugged his strong shoulders. "They didn't leave forwardin' addresses, if that's what you mean. Most a' the folks who left was younger Squats, late teens, early twenties. Growin' pains and all that, I guess. It ain't unusual for kids to wanna leave home to check other pastures."

No, it's not, she realized.

"But me?" Ernie continued. His long hair gusted in a sudden breeze. "I love it here. Cain't see myself ever leavin'. The city ain't for me. I went to Roanoke once, couldn't believe it. The air stank, the traffic was awful, everything was expensive. I don't know how you stand it in D.C."

"It has its ups and downs," she said. "But I'm actually liking it a lot here this time. I didn't last time I was back."

"Oh, yeah. When Judy'n' Dwayne got married. Well, that's all over 'n' done with. I'm hopin' Judy gets out of her funk soon."

"Me, too."

"She got drunk as a skunk last night, but you could tell-even as heartbroke as she was-there was a lot of worries and ha.s.sles gone from her life."

That was good to hear.

"You just out for a mornin' walk?" he asked her.