He walked around the front of his car, fumbled in his pocket for the keys, quickly opened the driver’s door.

On the seat of his car was a rose.

He hesitated less than a second, then tossed the flower onto the floor.

For the first time since he’d seen the television in his bedroom, he thought of Roberta. Was she really dead? he wondered. Or had that been part of the show put on for him?

He had the feeling that she was dead, and though he knew their marriage was over and that no matter what happened they would never get together again, he hoped that she was all right, he hoped that she was unharmed. He didn’t love her, but he still cared about her in a way, and the thought that anything from the House, anything to which he was remotely connected, had hurt Roberta or had caused her death made him feel sick inside.

But he’d find out about all that when he got back to New Mexico. Right now, he just wanted to get away from the House and get out of Chicago.

He closed the door, turned the key in the ignition, and put the car into gear. Grinding the rose underneath the heel of his boot, he sped down the street as fast as his rental car would accelerate.

TWENTY-TWO

Laurie

Josh was waiting for her when she emerged from the House.

As was a crew of firefighters and several policemen and an ambulance.

They hadn’t yet tried to break into the House, but it was clear that was what they intended to do, and two firemen carrying axes stopped when they saw her walk out onto the porch. She turned back, looking through the open door the way she’d come, but as she’d expected, as she’d known, there was no sign of either Mark or Norton.

Josh leaped up the steps, grabbed her, hugged her. “Thank God you’re all right!”

“How long was I in there?” she asked.

“A long time. At least three or four hours. I thought you might be dead.”

“Three or four hours?” She shook her head. “ ‘The spirits have done it all in one night.’”

“What?”

She shook her head. “Nothing.”

There was a bandage on the side of Josh’s head where he’d been clipped by the door, and a circle of red had leaked through the white. He looked back at the firemen. “I didn’t want to leave you in there alone, but I yelled and yelled and I couldn’t hear you anymore. I tried to get in, but I couldn’t, and when I tried to break a window, the rock was just… absorbed. So I took a chance. I left you there and drove into town and brought back…” He gestured toward the ambulance, fire truck, and police car.

He met her eyes. “What happened in there?”