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panoply of millions of lights, a challenge to the stars, which were dimmed by this dazzle.
    She said, “It seems so formidable, so solid, so enduring.”
    “What does?”
    “Civilization. But it’s as fragile as glass.” She glanced at him. “I better shut up. You’re starting to think I’m a nut case.”
    “No,” Tim said. “Glass makes sense to me. Glass makes perfect sense.”
    They traveled miles without speaking, and after a while he realized that theirs had become a comfortable silence. The night beyond the windows was an oblivion machine waiting to be triggered, but here in the Explorer, a kind of peace took temporary residence in his heart, and he felt that something good could happen, even something fine.

Seven
    A fter walking through the entire bungalow, boldly turning on lights as he went, Krait returned to the bedroom.
    The inexpensive white chenille bedspread was as smooth as the bedding of a military man. Not one tangle spoiled the fringed hem.
    Krait had been in houses where the beds were unmade and the sheets were too seldom changed. Sloppiness offended him.
    If a gun were allowed, an untidy person could be killed from a distance of at least a few feet. Then it mattered less that the target didn’t change underwear every day.
    Often, however, the contract specified strangulation, stabbing, bludgeoning, or another more intimate method of execution. If the victim turned out to be a slob, a potentially enjoyable task could become a distasteful chore.
    When a person was being garroted from behind, for instance, he would in desperation attempt to reach back and blind his assailant. You could easily keep your eyes safe, but the victim might pull at your cheek, grip your chin, brush fingers across your lips, and if you suspected he was the type who didn’t always wash his hands after using the men’s room, you sometimes wondered if the good pay and the many benefits of your job really outweighed the negatives.
    Linda Paquette’s closet was small and orderly. She didn’t have a lot of clothes.
    Krait liked the simplicity of her wardrobe. He himself had always been a person of simple tastes.
    From the shelf above the hanging garments, he took down a few boxes. None of them contained anything enlightening.
    Curiosity about his target was forbidden. He wasn’t supposed to know any more about her than her name, address, and appearance.
    Usually he would respect such a criterion in an assignment. The events at the tavern, however, required new rules for this project.
    He hoped to find snapshots of family and friends, high-school yearbooks, mementos of holiday travels and of faded romances. No photographs stood on the dust-free dresser or on the nicely polished nightstands, either.
    She seemed to have cut herself loose from her past. Krait did not know why she had done so, but he approved. He could deal more easily with people who were adrift, and alone.
    He had been expected to stage the incident to look like a break-in, rape her, then kill her in some fashion that would encourage the police to believe he had been nothing more than a sexual psychopath and that she had been a randomly chosen victim.
    The details of such a killing were invariably left to him. He had a genius for creating tableaus that convinced the best police profilers.
    At the dresser, he opened drawers, searching for the photos and the revealing personal items that he had not discovered in the closet.
    In spite of being forbidden, curiosity had infected Krait. He wanted to know why the big guy in the bar had played spoiler. What about the woman had encouraged the barfly to take such risks?
    Krait’s work was usually cut-and-dried. A lesser man, incapable of enjoying the subtle nuances of this profession, would have been bored after a few years. Krait found his work satisfying, in part because of the comforting sameness of his assignments.
    After cleanliness, familiarity was the quality that Krait valued most highly in any experience.