Part 21 (1/2)

”Somebody killed her, Clint.”

”I know that.”

”Mr. Raymond?”

”I don't think so. There's too much coldness there, under all that boyish good nature. Too much calculation.

He wouldn't do anything that stupid. Why should he kill her? He was perfectly confident that now and then she would jump into bed with him.”

”It's all so... nasty,” she said, looking up at me.

”Right.”

”Clint, I don't think you should turn yourself in yet.”

”So what do I do?”

She blushed more violently than before.

”You can stay here tonight. Tomorrow I can find out how... how convinced they are. Somehow. If they aren't completely sure, then you should go in. If they think they can... kill you, then you'll have to go away. I can get you away somehow. I know I can.”

It could have been the way she said that. Or the way she looked. Or it could have been a lot of half noticed things adding up in my mind, to make a sudden startling total. Maybe it was merely what she was, and how she was, and who she was. And she was definitely somebody.

She was Toni Mac Rae She was superbly, uniquely herself.

Anyway, it happened to me at that moment. Like, according to the books, it is supposed to happen to everybody.

One minute she was a handsome gal with a good mind, good taste, and far better equipment than average. All that one minute-and then she was suddenly Toni Mac Rae

Not a pastime, not a hobby, not a target for tonight. Toni.

Part of my life. Most of my life. All of my life.

Love at first sight is too trite. When it conics it doesn't creep. It pounces. It isn't even love like I thought of love.

It is something else. It is a necessity. It is a place in the road. You get there, turn oblique right, and take a road you never saw before.

She became, all of a sudden, Toni Mac Rae indisputable, irreplaceable, unanswerable-as necessary to me as lungs, legs and blood. There is no other way to say it.

I stood there and stared at her. She was miracles. Lips, legs, eyes, b.r.e.a.s.t.s. All miracles, all precious.

She was still red.

”Just because I say you can stay here doesn't mean that...”

”I know.”

”What do you mean, you know?”

”All of a sudden, just like that, I know what you mean before you say anything. We could sit without words and carry on whole conversations. Your eyes are wonderful.”