“Well, aren’t I right? Aren’t I the next international monument?”

Kelsey shook her head. “You’re a wonder, all right.”’ Besides all the gym equipment in the room, the walls were hung with mounted animal heads, obviously very much alive at one time. Stuffed pheasants, frozen in flight; ducks with shiny feathers; a small red fox with beady black eyes… She took a nervous step backward, and then she saw the deer—the delicate face and slender neck of a doe, the eyes wide and soft and trusting, the quintessence of gentleness. Kelsey felt a shiver of revulsion, a wave of sadness—strange…the eyes reminded her of Justin…

“Skip,” she mumbled, not wanting to stay one more minute in the presence of this horrible display.

“You don’t approve,” he said blandly, not seeming surprised at all. He lifted a beer can, and his mouth curled up in an apologetic grin. “Well, neither does my dear, sweet mother. That’s why I have them all hanging in here away from the general public. Another trophy room of mine, I guess you could say. And here I thought you’d be impressed by my primal hunter’s instinct.”

“I…I just don’t see how you could have…killed that deer.” Kelsey turned to him, disappointed. “They’re so sweet and helpless…”

“It’s the tracking, really,” Skip went on as if he hadn’t heard her. “The tracking…going after them…and the prey…unsuspecting…” His voice lowered, eyes fixed on the deer head high on the wall. “So helpless, and you run it down…stalk it till it’s finally yours.” He snickered, and Kelsey felt a chill snake up her arms. “It’s the tracking, Kelsey, that’s the real fun of it,” he whispered. “They don’t see you…but they know. They know you’re there, and they know they’re going to die. Sometimes,” his eyes fell on hers, “you can even smell their fear, it’s so strong.”

Kelsey pushed him aside. “Skip, you’re drunk. I’m going home.”

“And that completes this particular tour,” Skip announced. “Of course, there are more private, exclusive tours I’d be more than happy to sign you up for.” His eyes twinkled blearily as he looked her up and down, and Kelsey gave him a tight smile.

“What I can’t understand,” she said, “is how you could ever stand to go away to school and leave all this.”

“Why?” Skip feigned alarm, drawing back with a gasp. “Why, indeed!” He fell back on the waterbed, looking peculiarly smug. “Number one—I am a very, very unmanageable son, and dear old Dad wants me out of his hair. Number two—am I going too fast for you?—I am the ultimate embarrassment to my saintly mother, who doesn’t happen to be here now, by the way, because she’s having a new affair that no one’s supposed to know about, but, of course, everyone does. And number three—the reason that I’m a very, very unmanageable son and the ultimate embarrassment is because this place is a stinking prison!”

Kelsey hadn’t expected this—she stared back at him in silence, trying to make up her mind just how drunk he really was. His face wore that same mocking expression it always wore, but as he looked back at her, his mouth trembled and he gave a forced, weak laugh.