| Ch. 29. At noon two days later, Clint finds a hollow place in a treetop where he used to hide as a boy and climbs in it to sleep; his body clock is changing and he's becoming more nocturnal. We learn that Portia has hiked to Grafton to swim in the town's new pool and Sugie and Coley are safe in the havens. This chapter gives a science fiction-ish account of Lamprou physiology, reminiscent of Richard Matheson's great I Am Legend: cells that divide more slowly during periods of food-deprivation, an unusual part of the brain that awakens after death and repairs injuries, and a new mechanism in the heart that secretes "Lamprou substances" used by the brain.
Ch. 30. Duquieu awakens before dusk to discover Gilda hanging by the neck in the hallway of the mansion with a stake rammed through her heart. He falls into a chair in shock: "A sob racked Lamprou's body, brought him stiffly upright in the chair. His last link with hope and sanity lay in the form of this addle-brained woman who loved him far more than he deserved. Now she dangled like a puffy-faced, bulgy-eyed fish, strung up like a trophy by one of the hayseeds living in these wretched hills, her life's fluid leaking onto the floor at his feet." While he ponders who the culprit might be, Clint and Sugie show up with the nightly blood run. He hides, and listens as they find the body and immediately peg Jared as the killer.
Ch. 31. Duquieu throws a rock into haven number one with a message demanding that the townspeople produce Jared by nightfall of the next day. To work off his rage, he rides Baron around the hills: we learn that the horse is infected by the Lamprou substance, but, according to a later chapter, not a blood drinker. Coincidentally Duquieu's ride takes him to Grafton, where Portia is swimming after practicing her archery all day. He sees her diving in the pool by herself, wearing a white bikini.
Ch. 32. Duquieu attacks Portia and r4pes her. He leaves her lying on the grass, but she recovers quickly, grabs her bow and arrow, and heads him off on the footpath leading out of the park. She shoots him through the heart, but then can't find his body: only a bloody pile of clothing. [This chapter is one of the novel's biggest surprises; we've been expecting the big, manly, Fisher King confrontation between father and son, and suddenly, two-thirds of the way through the book, the love interest takes out Dad just like that.]
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Ch. 30. Duquieu awakens before dusk to discover Gilda hanging by the neck in the hallway of the mansion with a stake rammed through her heart. He falls into a chair in shock: "A sob racked Lamprou's body, brought him stiffly upright in the chair. His last link with hope and sanity lay in the form of this addle-brained woman who loved him far more than he deserved. Now she dangled like a puffy-faced, bulgy-eyed fish, strung up like a trophy by one of the hayseeds living in these wretched hills, her life's fluid leaking onto the floor at his feet." While he ponders who the culprit might be, Clint and Sugie show up with the nightly blood run. He hides, and listens as they find the body and immediately peg Jared as the killer.
Ch. 31. Duquieu throws a rock into haven number one with a message demanding that the townspeople produce Jared by nightfall of the next day. To work off his rage, he rides Baron around the hills: we learn that the horse is infected by the Lamprou substance, but, according to a later chapter, not a blood drinker. Coincidentally Duquieu's ride takes him to Grafton, where Portia is swimming after practicing her archery all day. He sees her diving in the pool by herself, wearing a white bikini.
Ch. 32. Duquieu attacks Portia and r4pes her. He leaves her lying on the grass, but she recovers quickly, grabs her bow and arrow, and heads him off on the footpath leading out of the park. She shoots him through the heart, but then can't find his body: only a bloody pile of clothing. [This chapter is one of the novel's biggest surprises; we've been expecting the big, manly, Fisher King confrontation between father and son, and suddenly, two-thirds of the way through the book, the love interest takes out Dad just like that.]
- tom moody 5-19-2002 8:34 am