ou expect? A marksman medal?"

"Okay, Ed, okay. Did you call Doc Van der Lies like I told you when I
phoned?"

Michaels took a folded white handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his
square-jawed face. "You sure are taking this calm, Sam. I'm telling you,
Sam, it would look better for you if you at least _acted_ like you were
sorry.... Doc Van der Lies is up in Wisconsin with Mike. I called Doc
Candle."

"He's an undertaker," Collins whispered.

"Don't you expect we need one?" Michaels asked. Then as if he wasn't
sure of the answer to his own question, he said, "Did you examine her to
see if she was dead? I--I don't know much about women. I wouldn't be
able to tell."

It didn't sound like a very good excuse to Collins.

"I guess she's dead," Collins said. "That's the way he must have wanted
it."

"_He?_ Wait a minute, Sam. You mean you've got one of those split
personalities like that girl on TV the other night? There's somebody
else inside you that takes over and makes you do things?"

"I never thought of it just like that before. I guess that's one way to
look at it."

The knock shook the back door before Michaels could say anything. The
door opened and Doc Candle slithered in disjointedly, a rolled-up
stretcher over his shoulder.

"Hello, boys," Candle said. "A terrible accident, it brings sorrow to us
all. Poor Nancy. Has the family been notified?"

"Good gosh, I forgot about it," Michaels said. "But maybe we better wait
until you get her--arranged, huh, Doc?"

* * * * *

"Quite so." The old man laid the canvas stretcher out beside the girl on
the floor and unrolled it. He flipped the body over expertly like a
window demonstrator flipping a pancake over on a griddle.

"Ed, if you'd just take the front, I'll carry the rear. My vehicle is in
the alley."

"Sam, you carry that end for Doc. You're a few years younger."

Collins wanted to say that he couldn't, but he didn't have enough yet to
argue with. He picked up the stretcher and looked down at the white feet
in the Scotch plaid slippers.

Candle opened the door and waited for them to go through.

The girl on the stretcher parted her lips and rolled her head back and
forth, a puzzled expression of pain on her face.

Collins nearly dropped the stretcher, but he made himself hold on
tight.

"Ed! Doc! She moved! She's still _alive_."

"Cut that out now, Sam," Ed Michaels snapped. "Just carry your end