"It was a dream walk," Dani said briefly.

"All three of you?"

Dani refused to look at him. "Yes. We thought there was a chance we might find out something."

"Did you?"

It was Hollis who replied, "Another symbolic trap, this one filled with endless hallways and screams. And maybe the voice Dani heard before."

"It was him," Dani said. "But just saying my name, right at the end, before we all came out."

"I don't like that," Hollis said. "I haven't been psychic my whole life, but it doesn't take an expert to know that an evil voice in your mind is not a good thing."

"Maybe I'm just nuts," Dani suggested, not entirely kidding.

Before anyone could respond to that, Shorty joined them to say, "Good news, bad news, and weird news. Good news is, we don't have a body in the pool, the drains, or any of the equipment."

"The bad news?" Marc asked.

"Bad news is, what we do have is more of what we found here on Wednesday. Body parts, mostly unidentifiable by sight. We won't know for sure until lab results are in, but I'm guessing there isn't a new victim here."

"And the weird news?" Hollis asked.

Shorty held up a clear plastic bag, and they could all see the silver bracelet it contained. "The weird news is that we have another piece of jewelry, and this one has a name on it. Only the name doesn't seem to belong to any of our victims or to anybody reported missing-as far as I know, anyway."

"What's the name?"

"Audrey."

Marc took the bag and studied the contents for a moment, then passed it on to Dani. "Doesn't mean a thing to me. Any of the rest of you?"

Dani looked at the delicate bracelet, the name of its presumed owner spelled out in pretty, flowing letters. She had never been especially sensitive to objects, and this one told her nothing. "Sorry, I'm drawing a blank." She passed it on to Paris.

And knew immediately that Paris felt something. But her twin merely turned the bagged bracelet in her hands for a moment, then handed it off to Hollis with a shrug.

Dani didn't comment. She waited for Hollis to return the bag to Marc with a shrug of her own and watched him give it back to Shorty.

"Maybe it'll mean something to the lab," Marc said. "Thanks, Shorty." He watched his technician return to the roped-off area around the pool, adding, " Paris, what did you pickup?"

"I'm not so sure I like that you can read me so well," she told him with a frown.

"I'm not reading you. I'm reading Dani-so to speak." He looked at her. "You went tense as soon as Paris touched the bag."

Dani met his gaze briefly, then asked her sister, "What did you pickup?"

Still frowning, Paris said, "My abilities seem to be changing too. Instead of a feeling that amounts to little more than a hunch, I saw something this time. I got a weird little flash image of a guy buying flowers. Roses. I think it was at that shop up near the old railroad depot."

"Could you recognize him if you saw him again?" Hollis asked.

"No, I didn't see enough of him. Just his hands reaching for the flowers, and a glimpse of an older lady behind the counter, smiling at him."

"Let's go," Marc said.

It wasn't until they were about halfway to their destination that Hollis spoke from the backseat.

"Look for her in the water. Maybe it's as simple as that. A bracelet with a woman's name on it."

"I just hope the name gets us somewhere," Marc said. "Preferably before we find the murdered remains of Shirley Arledge."

He really wanted it to be the same, and it almost was.

Almost.

But the drug he was trying worked only to a point, and after that she really didn't want to cooperate.

She was a screamer. He hated it when she screamed. It was the quiet sobs, the soft, ladylike pleas, that he expected from Audrey.

He finally resorted to taping her mouth again. It was an imperfect solution, and he was conscious of annoyance with that.

"Audrey, you're making this more difficult than it needs to be," he told her.

She moaned, and her wet eyes begged him.

He enjoyed that for a moment, smiling down at her.

She was ready. Her short hair covering her small, well-shaped head was a rich, dark brown, and the pencil had darkened her eyebrows nicely-though he made a mental note to use the hair color on them next time. He had shaved away the ugly yellow pubic hair and the hair on her legs and armpits as well.

Now to get her thoroughly clean.

He got a bucket filled with hot soapy water. He used the brush first, scrubbing her from her feet to her throat. He used the sink sprayer, with its special long hose, to rinse her body. And even though she was pink and glowing, he used a second bucket of hot soapy water and a soft sponge to wash her down a second time.

He rinsed her again, taking care to shift her as much as possible so that the soapy and then the clear water flowed underneath to reach the places his brush and sponge hadn't.

He used two big, soft bath sheets to dry her, taking special care in all the crevices and underneath her. In the process, the table itself was dried, of course, so when he was finally done he used the controls to bring it back to horizontal. Then he used the programmed setting to lower the foot end of the table just a bit.

He stood between her feet and made sure she was looking at him with her wet brown eyes, and began unbuttoning his shirt.

She made a high-pitched mewling sound, and the muscles along her inner thighs twitched in sudden spasms.

"I'm already very clean," he told her. "Because I always am. But I'll rinse myself off first, just so you can be certain nothing dirty is going to touch you, Audrey."

This time a muffled wail escaped her, and her feet and hands jerked as she fought the restraints.

Hands on his belt, he paused. "Now, Audrey-do you really want another shot?"

He could see the delicious indecision in her eyes and savored it. Did she want to be largely insensitive to what was happening to her, but also completely helpless to stop any of it? Or was she willing to risk the terror, pain, and humiliation for the slim chance that she could exert some control over the outcome?

Her eyes closed briefly, and with a sob she went limp, acquiescing.

"That's my girl," he said, smiling as he began to unbuckle his belt.

The time he spent with Audrey was always energizing but draining as well, and he had to plan for regular breaks for himself to eat or nap or just rest for a while.

It was, he had discovered, another way to draw out the experience, to savor it.

It did seem to take a lot out of Audrey, however.

He left the room after their most recent session of love-making to take a quick shower, returning clean, dry, and naked; once Audrey had been scrubbed clean initially, he preferred to be naked.

She seemed to be sleeping when he padded silently back in, but when he pulled the tape from her mouth, she flinched and her eyes opened. Eternally wet eyes, pleading eyes, now sunken a bit and surrounded by darkening circles of faintly braised flesh.

Odd, that. He never struck her face, and yet those circles always appeared toward the end.

As if her eyes were dying first.

"Please," she whispered. "Please don't hurt me anymore. Please let me go. I won't tell anyone. I promise I won't tell anyone. Please-"

"Now, Audrey, we've discussed this. You're not going to tell anyone, we both know that. You don't have to promise me that. And we've discussed your punishment and the need for it."

"But I'm not Audrey. I'm not the one who abandon-"

He reached out a hand swiftly, almost completely encircling her delicate throat. He applied just a little pressure, tightened his fingers only until she began to choke.