Captain Myers, horrified, couldn’t resist touching her again, to feel how flesh that should have been soft and yielding had turned into something as cold and smooth as a stone pillar.

He stood up, and then he said in a dry, shaken voice, “We’re going to treat this as homicide. I want you to get this body down to the autopsy people and I want you to tell them that they have to find out how this was done if it takes them all night and all day and all the next night. You got that?”

“Yes, sir."

A little distance away, ignored by the sergeant who was supposed to be escorting them back to their pickup, Harry and Neil and Singing Rock watched the revelation of what had happened to Mrs. Novato in silence.

Then Neil turned away, and whispered, “My God. Oh, my God.”

Harry said softly, “How did that happen, Singing Rock?”

Singing Rock watched another medic arrive with a stretcher, and cover Mrs. Novato’s body with a red blanket.

“They gave her to Sak,” he said. “The ancient keeper of the gateway. That smoky demon you saw in Mr. Saperstein’s photographs. I suppose a human woman was one of the rewards he wanted. He raped her, as you probably saw. The only difference between that and any other rape was that she would have suffered incredible mental horrors while it was happening, and the gaseous form of Sak is probably three thousand degrees below freezing.”

8

Gradually, the police officers and medics returned to their posts, and the sergeant, although he was looking colorless and shaken, turned around to usher Harry and Singing Rock and Neil back to their pickup.

“What did you think of that, sergeant?” asked Harry. “Did you ever see anything like that before?”

The sergeant opened the door of the pickup for him and indicated that he should climb up.

“I’ve seen hundreds of stiffs in this job,” he said harshly. “One more doesn’t make no odds.”

Singing Rock looked at him carefully. Then he said: “I know how easy it is to become blasé, sergeant, but let me give you one good word of caution. Tonight, just for once, don’t be blasé. Look out for unexpected attacks. Take a lot of care.”

The sergeant wiped sweat from his forehead with his furry arm. “You talk like you know what’s going on here,” he said.

“I do,” said Singing Rock.

“Well, that proves you’re nuts,” replied the sergeant. “Anybody who thinks they know how a bus gets to shine like a dead mackerel, and how a woman gets herself frozen solid in the middle of September, they have to be going bananas.”

Neil said angrily, “Why the hell don’t you—”

“Neil!” interrupted Harry. Then, more quietly, “It won’t do any good.”