Read The Killer Touch for Free Online

paranoia.”
    â€œI’ve never tried it.”
    â€œDon’t, Joss. You can’t enjoy it like you enjoy your everyday run-of-the-mill hallucinations. And it’s so logical it’s hard to see through it. If a man’s trying to kill you, and you’re sure of it, you’d probably try to get him first. Right? Sure, that’s logical. Or call the cops. Well, a paranoiac works the same way. The only thing is, nobody’s trying to kill him. It’s all delusion. He tells the cops and they say sure and do nothing. So the nut decides everybody’s against him, the cops, the whole world. A guy reaches in his pocket for a cigarette, blam! The nut shoots, figuring he was going for a gun. I remember a case, a man was cutting a roast at Sunday dinner, then suddenly he turned and stabbed his wife in the stomach: She’d poisoned the meat, he said. Another guy shot a man because he bumped into his car. Later he told the cops the other guy had done it in order to hold him there until help arrived. They were all plotting to kill him—”
    â€œOh, Burt. Mr. Keener was so calm, relaxed—”
    â€œYes. And wasn’t that strange, under the circumstances?”
    â€œMaybe. I’m not sure what you mean.”
    â€œWell, I didn’t think he was really relaxed. He could have been wound up so tight that he didn’t dare allow a single emotion to disturb the surface. That’s another mark of the psychopath, Joss; he’s so torn up inside that he can’t let his mask slip for fear the whole thing will collapse.”
    â€œBurt …” She shivered and drew her robe tighter. “You’re giving me the creeps. I’ll give back their money and tell ’em to leave.”
    â€œNo, I’m only guessing. I think I’ll have another look at him, right now. He did invite me for a drink.”
    â€œWhat’ll I do?”
    â€œGo to bed. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
    The lamp was lit on the veranda of cabin two, and Rolf Keener was seated at the hand-hewn wooden table with a glass before him. When Burt tapped on the door, Rolf waved at a glass on the other side of the table. “Come in. There’s yours.”
    Dazed, Burt walked in and sat down. “I said I wasn’t coming. Why did you expect me?”
    â€œBecause you are what you are, Sergeant.”
    A physical shock tingled along Burt’s nerves. His mind whirled for an instant, then he remembered he’d been out four hours. “You went through my things.”
    Rolf shrugged. “I checked your identification. Wouldn’t you have done the same to me?”
    Thoughtfully, Burt had to admit to himself that it was true. “It isn’t the same thing—”
    â€œWhy not? Are you on duty now? Do you carry any warrants?”
    Burt frowned at Keener. The subject of his status had been dragged into the conversation by the scruff of the neck; Burt wondered why the man had been so eager for that piece of information.
    â€œI’m not on duty, Keener. But if you found out I was a cop, why the big act with Joss?”
    Rolf nodded. “You’re good. Very sharp. I put on that act because …” He shrugged. “I like to keep as many people as ignorant as possible.”
    â€œBut you let me know. You didn’t have to.”
    Rolf closed his eyes a minute, then opened them. “That confuses things even more, doesn’t it?”
    He gave a hollow laugh which sent a prickle of dread up Burt’s spine. Here was a man not entirely in control of himself; a man who could work himself into a corner where he’d have to shoot his way out. You never knew what would seem a reason for killing, to a man like that, and Burt began to feel jumpy. He couldn’t remember ever having been afraid of a man before, but Rolf came close to filling the bill.
    Something else. The silence between their words was filled with the rustle of a mattress, the