HOUSE ON THE CORNER

She had to come to from the cocktail's spell soon. He had to make her think that she had slept off the Cognac cocktail, rather than his odiouslyprepared sedative. If she doubted his veracity, should there be residual evidence like blood smear, Armstrong knew he had to make her believethat her period came on that afternoon. 'I'm not worried,' he consoled himself. 'I have no prison record. Colleagues consider me a pillar ofthe community.' His marriage had saved him from charges for Kandi's statutory rape at fifteen, and child support had been accepted for hisseduction of Junie at the same age. Successful circumvention of criminal charges fed his sense of insidious invincibility. Total control and facilestealth in his deed gave him insatiable satisfaction like a child stealing the cookie, a thrill he would not have enjoyed if it had been handed tohim outright. The thrill of his game was everything. The charm in the chase was an undeniable chasm whose slippery periphery was a roundof Jeopardy.