Watchers by Dean Koontz Page A

first. He did not believe he would jinx Paula; at least, he didn’t consciously believe it; he had not openly reverted to childhood superstition. But he did not want to risk the pain of loss again. Undeterred by his hesitancy, she pursued him, and in time he had to admit he was in love with her. So in love that he told her about his lifelong tag game with Death, something of which he spoke to no one else. “Listen,” Paula said, “you won’t have to mourn me. I’m going to outlive you because I’m not the type to bottle up my feelings. I take out my frustrations on those around me, so I’m bound to shave a decade off your life.”
     
     
    They had been married in a simple courthouse ceremony four years ago, the summer after Travis’s thirty-second birthday. He had loved her. Oh God, how he had loved her.
     
     
    To Einstein, he said, “We didn’t know it then, but she had cancer on our wedding day. Ten months later, she was dead.”
     
     
    The dog put its head down in his lap again.
     
     
    For a while, Travis could not continue.
     
     
    He drank some beer.
     
     
    He stroked the dog’s head.
     
     
    In time he said, “After that, I tried to go on as usual. Always prided myself in going on, facing up to anything, keeping my chin up, all that bullshit. Kept the real-estate office running another year. But none of it mattered any more. Sold it two years ago. Cashed in all my investments, too. Turned everything into cash and socked it in the bank. Rented this house. Spent the last two years . . . well, brooding. And I got squirrelly. Hardly a surprise, huh? Squirrelly as hell. Came full circle, you see, right back to what I believed when I was a kid. That I was a danger to anyone who gets close to me. But you changed me, Einstein. You turned me around in one day. I swear, it’s like you were sent to show me that life’s mysterious, strange, and full of wonders— and that only a fool withdraws from it willingly and lets it pass him by.”
     
     
    The dog was peering up at him again.
     
     
    He lifted his beer can, but it was empty.
     
     
    Einstein went to the fridge and got another Coors.
     
     
    Taking the can from the dog, Travis said, “Now, after hearing the whole sorry thing, what do you think? You think it’s wise for you to hang around with me? You think it’s safe?”
     
     
    Einstein woofed.
     
     
    “Was that a yes?”
     
     
    Einstein rolled onto his back and put all four legs in the air, baring his belly as he had done earlier when he had permitted Travis to collar him.
     
     
    Putting his beer aside, Travis got off his chair, settled on the floor, and stroked the dog’s belly. “All right,” he said. “All right. But don’t die on me, damn you. Don’t you dare die on me.”
     

     

6
     
     
    Nora Devon’s telephone rang again at eleven o’clock.
     
     
    It was Streck. “Are you in bed now, prettiness?”
     
     
    She did not reply.
     
     
    “Do you wish I was there with you?”
     
     
    Since the previous call, she had thought about how to handle him and had come up with several threats she hoped might work. She said, “If you don’t leave me alone, I’ll go to the police.”
     
     
    “Nora, do you sleep in the nude?”
     
     
    She was sitting in bed. She sat up straighter, tense, rigid. “I’ll go to the police and say you tried to . . . to force yourself on me. I will, I swear I will.”
     
     
    “I’d like to see you in the nude,” he said, ignoring her threat.
     
     
    “I’ll lie. I’ll say you r-raped me.”
     
     
    “Wouldn’t you like me to put my hands on your breasts, Nora?”
     
     
    Dull cramps in her stomach forced her to bend forward in bed. “I’ll have the telephone company put a tap on my line, record all the calls I get, so I’ll have proof.”
     
     
    “Kiss you all over, Nora. Wouldn’t that be nice?”
     
     
    The cramps were getting worse. She was shaking uncontrollably, too. Her voice cracked repeatedly as she employed