She moved toward him.
“Looking for more, huh?” said Rick. “Give me time, and you could be lucky.”
She leaned over him and her hand felt for the silver ingot and gripped it tightly.
“Hey, passionate!” he chided her.
She forced his head downward and with her free hand grasped the stretch of nylon rope forming the spiral immediately above his head. She tugged at it and forced it under his chin.
Long hours on the web had taught her the strength of the recoil on those spiral lines.
As she moved aside and the rope tightened, she heard the snap of Rick Saville’s neck. His body slipped down the web and crashed to the gym floor.
A spider will remove from its web anything that is of no further use.
Ed Cunningham had taken off his shirt and was sitting in the apartment slumped over a chair back. “I’m bushed, Greg. Would you give me a massage?”
Laz moved behind him and began kneading his shoulders. “You still feel bad about Spider Girl?”
Irritated, Ed said, “I asked you not to call her that. Her name is Sarah.”
“You figure it was a mistake to tell her about us?”
“I just wish it hadn’t happened. It opens a whole can of worms.”
Laz stopped massaging. “That’s what you think about our relationship?”
“Greg, for Christ’s sake, you know better than that. I’m talking about the girl. She took it hard. Now that I’ve told her, there’s no way I can help her any more.”
“‘Any more’?” echoed Laz with heavy irony.
“What do you mean?”
“Admit it, Ed — you really screwed that girl up. She has chronic delusions, not the least of which is that she could make it with you. That was all you had going with her. She didn’t want you as her shrink. You were never in a position to help, because your relationship was based on a deception.”
“Skip the lecture, would you?” said Ed. “Okay, I screwed it up. It’s late. Let’s hit the sack.”
When the phone rang, Don was showering, prior to getting into bed. He had drunk more straight scotches than he cared to count. He was still sober, but not from any intention on his part. He had wanted oblivion. It was his lot in life to be the guy who picked the drunks off the floor and helped them home. But his hangovers were as bad as theirs.
“Do you know what time it is?”
“Don?”
“Who is this?”
“Jerry Berlin.”
“Jerry! What the hell—”
“Don, I’m speaking from my office. Would you come over here right away? Something terrible has happened, and we need your help. I can’t discuss it. Just get here on the double.”
The light went on, and Laz was standing by the switch, in his shorts. “You’re really in it now, shrink,” he told Ed.
“What is it? I heard you talking. Must have slept through the phone.”
“This’ll wake you up. Your Spider Girl — sorry, Sarah — has gotten herself raped on that web by Rick Saville, and now he’s dead.”
“What?”
Laz crossed to the kitchen and poured a couple of drinks. He brought one in and handed it to Ed in a manner devoid of feeling.
Ed put down the glass, got out of bed, reached for his bathrobe, and wrapped it tightly around himself. “This is on the level?”
Laz nodded gravely.
“Hell — what time is it?”
“Just after three — if that makes any difference.”
“Who called?”
“Berlin.”
Ed picked up the drink and swallowed it in a gulp. “So what does he want?”
Laz stared at him in amazement. “What do you think he wants, for God’s sake? He’s got a hysterical girl on his hands who’s just been raped. He’s got a dead body on the campus. He wants help. He wants you to take care of Sarah while we sort out what happened, and what to do about it. Start dressing.”
Ed shook his head. “That isn’t the way to handle this, Greg.”
“Move your ass, man. They need us!”
“Will you listen to me? Sarah had a bad shock from me tonight, and she’s had another from Saville. She doesn’t need a third. I’m the last guy on earth she needs right now. I know what I’m talking about.”
“You do? That girl was flinging herself at you a couple of hours ago, and now you say she doesn’t want you to go to her?”
“How do I get through to you? She’s in shock. If she saw me, it would reinforce the shock she had earlier.”
There was still a baffled and angry look on Laz’s face. “Ed, you must have some concern about the girl. She’s been sexually attacked.”
“Whose word do we have for that?”
Laz gave a shrug. “Professor Berlin’s.”
“Yeah — and who did he get it from?”
“Sarah, I guess... Hey, what are you driving at?”
Ed poured himself a second drink. “I’m not sure if I buy it, that’s all.”
“Christ, you’re a cold-hearted, cynical bastard.”
“Thanks.”
“Don’t you have any conscience at all? I think I should drag you there.”
Ed was tight-lipped. “If Sarah sees me, it will precipitate a crisis I won’t be responsible for.”
“The hell you won’t! Who are you to talk about responsibility? You’re abandoning that girl.”
“For the sake of her sanity,” said Ed. “Look, this isn’t helping anyone. For God’s sake, get dressed and go.”
“And what do you suppose it will do for her sanity when she sees me?”
Ed picked up Laz’s trousers and slung them toward him.
“You won’t reinforce the shock. She isn’t emotionally bound up with you. Go and see what state she’s in, and if she needs a shrink, we can fix it, no problem.”
Laz got into his clothes. “So what do I tell Berlin?”
“Whatever you like.”
“And if the girl asks?”
“She won’t,” said Ed. “I know her.”
“You won’t ever see her again?”
“It’s essential that I don’t. She’ll fasten on to someone else.”
“Sure,” said Laz, “and I hope for her sake he isn’t a shit like you.” He slammed the door.
The office was thick with cigar smoke. The first person Don saw was Havelock Sloane, red-eyed and clutching a mug of black coffee, seated in Jerry’s executive chair. He was wearing a yellow polo shirt and blue slacks. Greg Laz, in the suit he had worn earlier, was helping Jerry make more coffee. And in the armchair in the corner was Sarah, wrapped in a red blanket. She did not look up at Don.
“Don — thanks for coming so soon,” said Jerry. He looked like a man under sentence. He handed Don a mug of coffee.
“This is Rigden, huh?” said Havelock. There was something different about the man. He had no hair. “Who’s going to fill him in?”
Jerry said, “Take a seat, Don. Cigar?”
“No, thanks.” There was only one chair unoccupied and that was the upright one beside the filing cabinet.
“Don, we have quite a problem on our hands,” said Jerry. “It will help if we discuss it calmly.” He glanced at the clock over the door. “Just over an hour ago one of the campus security officers was doing his rounds, and when he got near the gym he ran into Sarah wandering across the lawn. He asked if she was okay and she told him that there had been an accident and a guy was dead in there. The officer checked, and sure enough there was someone lying on the floor. It was pretty obvious his neck was broken. They called me and I got over pretty quick. I could see Sarah was very shaken, but she didn’t want to talk except to tell me the dead guy’s name was Rick Saville.”
“He was my assistant on the Never Fear series,” explained Laz. “And he worked on Havelock’s project.”