Not that it mattered now, of course.

"Get down from there." Marcus sounded really mad. "Get down there from there, by God, or I'll climb in and fish you out – "

Fish me out. That struck me as kind of amusing under the circumstances. I started to laugh.

"Susannah," Jesse said. "I think – "

"We'll see how hard you're laughing," Marcus bellowed, "when I get through with you, you stupid bitch."

I stopped laughing all of a sudden.

"Susannah," Jesse said. Now he really sounded worried.

"Don't worry, Jesse," I said, in a perfectly calm voice. "I've got this one under control."

"Jesse?" Marcus looked around. Not seeing anyone else in the room, however, but Tad, he said, "It's Marcus. I'm Marcus, remember? Now, come on down here. We don't have any more time for these childish games...."

I bent down and seized one of the accent lights that glowed, hidden in the sand at the bottom of the tank. Shaped like a small floodlight, it proved to be very hot in my hands when I touched it.

Marcus, realizing I wasn't going to come with him on my own accord, sighed, and reached into his suit coat, which was wet and smelly now. He'd have to change before his lunch meeting.

"Okay, you want to play games?" Marcus pulled something made of shiny metal from his breast pocket. It was, I realized, a tiny little gun. A twenty-two, from the looks of it. I knew from having watched so many episodes of Cops.

"See this?" Marcus pointed the muzzle at me. "I don't want to have to shoot you. The coroner tends to be suspicious of drowning victims bearing gunshot wounds. But we can always let the propellers

dismember you so no one will actually be able to tell. Maybe just your head will toss up onto shore. Wouldn't your mother love that? Now, put the light down and let's go."

I straightened, but I didn't put the light down. It came up with me, along with the black, rubber-coated cord that had grounded it beneath the sand.

"That's right," Marcus said, looking pleased. "Put the light down, and let's go."

Jesse, standing in the water beside my would-be assassin, looked extremely interested in what was going on. "Susannah," he said. "That is a gun he is holding. Do you want me to – "

"Don't worry, Jesse," I said, approaching the edge of the tank, where there'd once been a wall of glass – before I'd broken it, that is. "Everything's under control."

"Who the hell is Jesse?" Marcus, I realized, was getting testy. "There is no Jesse here. Now put the light down and let's – "

I did what he said. Well, sort of. That is, I wrapped the cord that was attached to the light around my left hand. Then with my other hand, I pulled the bulb so that the cord came popping right out of the back of the socket.

Then I stood there holding the lamp in one hand, and the cord with frayed wires now sticking out of one end of it in the other.

"That's great," Marcus said. "You broke the light. You really showed me. Now" – his voice rose – "get down here!"

I stepped up to the edge of the tank.

"I am not," I informed Marcus, "stupid."

He gestured with the gun. "Whatever you say. Just – "

"Nor," I added, "am I a bitch."

Marcus's eyes widened. Suddenly, he realized what I was up to.

"No!" he shrieked.

But it was way too late. I had already thrown the cord into the murky water at Marcus's feet.

There was a brilliant blue flash and a lot of popping noises. Marcus screamed.

And then we were plunged into impenetrable darkness.

CHAPTER

21

Well, okay, not really impenetrable. I could still see Jesse, glowing the way he did.

"That," he said, looking down at the moaning Marcus, "was very impressive, Susannah."

"Thanks," I said, pleased to have won his approval. It happened so rarely. I was glad I'd listened to Doc during one of his recent electrical safety lectures.

"Now, do you think you want to tell me," Jesse asked, moving to offer me a steadying hand as I climbed down from the aquarium, "just what is going on here? Is that your friend Tad on the couch there?"

"Uh-huh." Before stepping down, I bent down, searching for the cord along the floor. "Step over here, will you, so I can – " Jesse's glow, subtle as it was, soon revealed what I was looking for. "Never mind." I pulled the cord back up into the aquarium. "Just in case," I said, straightening and climbing out of the aquarium, "they get the circuit breaker fixed before I'm out of here."

"Who is they? Susannah, what is going on here?"

"It's a long story," I said. "And I'm not sticking around to tell it. I want to be out of here when he" – I nodded toward Marcus, who was moaning more loudly now – "wakes up. He's got a couple of

thick-necked compadres waiting for me, too, in case – " I broke off.

Jesse looked at me questioningly. "What is it?"

"Do you smell that?"

Stupid question. I mean, after all, the guy's dead. Can ghosts smell?

Apparently so, since he went, "Smoke."

A single syllable, but it sent a chill down my spine. Either that, or a fish had found it's way inside my sweater.

I glanced at the aquarium. Beyond it, I could see a rosy glow emanating from the room next door. Just as I had suspected, by giving Marcus a giant electric shock, I had managed to spark a fire in the circuit panel. It appeared to have spread to the walls around it. I could see the first tiny licks of orange leaping out from behind the wood paneling.

"Great," I said. The elevator was useless without electricity. And as I knew only too well, there was no other way out of that room.

Jesse wasn't quite the defeatist I was, however.

"The windows," he said, and hurried toward them.

"It's no good." I leaned against Mr. Beaumont's desk and picked up the house phone. Dead, just as I'd expected. "They're nailed shut."

Jesse glanced at me over his shoulder. He looked amused. "So?" he said.

"So." I slammed the receiver down. "Nailed, Jesse. As in impossible to budge."