Chapter 82

THE THIRD NETMAIL WAS FROM MR. HACHETTE.
INSPECTOR¹ TRUMAN: I MYSELF BITTERLY EXPRESS HEREWITH EXTREME DISPLEASURE AT BEING EXPECTED TO CREATE THE MOST SUPERIOR OF HAUTE CUISINE² THAT I AM CAPABLE ON A MOMENT’S NOTICE FOR THE BOTTOMLESS STOMACH OF A GUEST WHOSE PRESENCE IN THE HOUSE ISN’T REVEALED UNTIL HE APPEARS IN MY KITCHEN, SURPRISING ME LIKE A WEEVIL IN THE FLOUR SUPPLY. MR. WHISTLER’S MAGNIFICENT TASTE IN FOOD AND HIS PRAISE FOR MY UNIQUE COQUILLES ST. JACQUES, AS FOR EVERY REFINED DISH OF MY DIFFICULT PREPARATION, IS PLEASING BUT DOES NOT GLUE TOGETHER MY SHATTERED NERVES, WHICH I WARN YOU ARE DEVASTATED³ AND FRAYED⁴. IF THIS IS DONE TO ME AGAIN, BY YOU, I MUST RESIGN WITH CONSEQUENCES OF UNSPEAKABLE EXTREMITY⁵. I AM ALSO DISPLEASED⁶ TO ANNOUNCE THAT THE BOY CLAIMS TO HAVE MADE HAM SANDWICHES IN MY KITCHEN WITHOUT PERMISSION, AND THAT I AM SHARPLY INVENTORYING⁷ THE PANTRY AT THIS TIME TO LEARN THE EXTENT OF HIS DESTRUCTION. HOPING THAT THESE OUTRAGES⁸ MUST NEVER BE REPEATED, I REMAIN, CHEF HACHETTE.
Dead Dunny had moved right in. And with an appetite.
This was crazy. Ethan wanted to laugh, but he couldn’t work up as much as a smile. His mouth had gone dry. His palms were damp.
He went back to Yorn’s message: FRIC IS MAKING HIMSELF A [519] HIDEY-HOLE IN THE CONSERVATORY⁹ ... YOUR FRIEND WHISTLER BROUGHT IT TO MY ATTENTION ... BOYS PLAY AT ROBINSON CRUSOE ... WHISTLER SCRAPES MY NERVES. ...
During Hannah’s battle with cancer, Ethan had felt helpless as never before. He had always been able to take care of the people who mattered to him, to do everything for them that needed to be done. But he couldn’t save Hannah, she who had been the dearest to him.
Once more, he felt control slipping out of his hands. With a state-of-the-art security system, on-site guards, and well-conceived security protocols¹⁰, with full diligence, he could not keep Dunny off the estate, out of the house. Man or ghost, or a force to which no easy label applied¹¹, Dunny somehow had a connection with Reynerd and probably with the professor about whom Reynerd had written in his screenplay. Dunny must be part of the threat, and he mocked Ethan by his every intrusion, proving that no one here was safe.
If Ethan failed Channing Manheim, if someone got at the star in spite of all precautions, he would be failing not only his boss but also the special boy who’d be left fatherless. Fric would be remanded to the mercy of his self-absorbed mother, set further adrift than ever, consigned¹² to a deeper loneliness than the one he already endured.
Ethan had gotten up from the computer without realizing it. He stood in a state of agitation¹³, overwhelmed by the need to move, to do something, but unable to understand what must be done.
At the phone, he pressed INTERCOM and the number for the library. “Fric, are you there?” He waited. “Fric, you hear me?”
The boy’s voice came wrapped in a curious caution: “Who’s that?”
“Nobody here but us broken-down old former cops. Have you found a book?”
“Not yet.”
“Don’t take too long.”
“Gimme a couple minutes,” Fric said.
As Ethan released the intercom button, a light flashed on the telephone, then burned steadily¹⁴: Line 24.
[520] He studied the items arranged on the desk between the computer and the telephone. Ladybugs, snails¹⁵, foreskins ...
His attention drifted back to the phone. The indicator¹⁶ lamp. Line 24.
The half-heard voice issuing from the far side of the moon, to which he’d listened for half an hour on this phone the previous night, had been resonating in his heart ever since. And the faint voice that he’d thought he heard coming from the musicless speaker in the hospital elevator just this morning.
Cookie jar full of Scrabble tiles, the book Paws for Reflection, the stitched apple with the eye at its core ...
In the elevator, he had pressed STOP, not merely to listen longer to the voice but because he’d had the feeling that when he reached the hospital garage, no garage would be there. Only lapping black water. Or an abyss.
At the time, he had sensed that this absurd phobic response must be the sublimation¹⁷ of a more realistic fear he was reluctant to face. Now he was on the verge¹⁸ of grasping the true terror.
Suddenly he knew that reality as he perceived it was like the colored-glass image presented by the angled mirrors at the end of a kaleidoscope. The pattern of reality that he’d always seen was about to change before his eyes, about to shift into one far more dazzling, and fearsome.
Ladybugs, snails, foreskins ...
Line 24, engaged.
The faraway voice echoed in his memory, like the cries of sea gulls¹⁹, melancholy²⁰ in a mist: Ethan, Ethan ...
Phone calls from the dead.
Ladybugs, snails, foreskins ...
The indicator lamp: a tiny version of the dome²¹ light high atop Our Lady of Angels Hospital, the last line on the phone board, last line, last chance, last hope.
Ethan caught the scent²² of roses. There were no roses in the apartment.
[521] In his mind’s eye: Broadway roses on her grave, red-gold blooms against wet grass.
The fragrance²³ of roses grew stronger, intense. The scent was real, not imagined, stronger here than in Forever Roses.
The skin crawling on the back of his neck, across his scalp, was the result less of ordinary fear than of humbling²⁴ awe²⁵. A cool quiver in the pit of his stomach.
He had no key to the forbidden room behind the blue door, where calls on Line 24 were recorded. Suddenly he was in a mood that made keys unimportant.
With an intuitive sense of urgency that he could not explain but that he trusted, Ethan ran from the apartment to the back stairs and all the way to the third floor.

1 inspector   

n.检查员，监察员，视察员

参考例句：

• The inspector was interested in everything pertaining to the school.视察员对有关学校的一切都感兴趣。
• The inspector was shining a flashlight onto the tickets.查票员打着手电筒查看车票。

2 cuisine   

n.烹调，烹饪法

参考例句：

• This book is the definitive guide to world cuisine.这本书是世界美食的权威指南。
• This restaurant is renowned for its cuisine.这家餐馆以其精美的饭菜而闻名。

3 devastated   

v.彻底破坏( devastate的过去式和过去分词)；摧毁；毁灭；在感情上（精神上、财务上等）压垮adj.毁坏的；极为震惊的

参考例句：

• The bomb devastated much of the old part of the city. 这颗炸弹炸毁了旧城的一大片地方。
• His family is absolutely devastated. 他的一家感到极为震惊。

4 frayed   

adj.磨损的v.（使布、绳等）磨损，磨破( fray的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• His shirt was frayed. 他的衬衫穿破了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The argument frayed their nerves. 争辩使他们不快。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

5 extremity   

n.末端，尽头；尽力；终极；极度

参考例句：

• I hope you will help them in their extremity.我希望你能帮助在穷途末路的他们。
• What shall we do in this extremity?在这种极其困难的情况下我们该怎么办呢？

6 displeased   

a.不快的

参考例句：

• The old man was displeased and darted an angry look at me. 老人不高兴了，瞪了我一眼。
• He was displeased about the whole affair. 他对整个事情感到很不高兴。

7 inventorying   

vt.编制…的目录（inventory的现在分词形式）

参考例句：

• Within the staffing area itself, appraisal, inventorying, selection, and development are closely related. 在任用的范围内，评价、储备、选择以及培养等过程都息息相关。 来自辞典例句
• Indulges the missing pain troubled, inventorying dripped lonely the rough sound. 放纵思念痛苦的纷扰盘点寂寞淌过坎坷的声音。 来自互联网

8 outrages   

引起…的义愤，激怒( outrage的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• People are seeking retribution for the latest terrorist outrages. 人们在设法对恐怖分子最近的暴行进行严惩。
• He [She] is not allowed to commit any outrages. 不能任其胡作非为。

9 conservatory   

n.温室，音乐学院；adj.保存性的，有保存力的

参考例句：

• At the conservatory,he learned how to score a musical composition.在音乐学校里，他学会了怎样谱曲。
• The modern conservatory is not an environment for nurturing plants.这个现代化温室的环境不适合培育植物。

10 protocols   

n.礼仪( protocol的名词复数 )；（外交条约的）草案；（数据传递的）协议；科学实验报告（或计划）

参考例句：

• There are also protocols on the testing of nuclear weapons. 也有关于核武器试验的协议。 来自辞典例句
• Hardware components and software design of network transport protocols are separately introduced. 介绍系统硬件组成及网络传输协议的软件设计。 来自互联网

11 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

12 consigned   

v.把…置于（令人不快的境地）( consign的过去式和过去分词 )；把…托付给；把…托人代售；丟弃

参考例句：

• I consigned her letter to the waste basket. 我把她的信丢进了废纸篓。
• The father consigned the child to his sister's care. 那位父亲把孩子托付给他妹妹照看。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

13 agitation   

n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动

参考例句：

• Small shopkeepers carried on a long agitation against the big department stores.小店主们长期以来一直在煽动人们反对大型百货商店。
• These materials require constant agitation to keep them in suspension.这些药剂要经常搅动以保持悬浮状态。

14 steadily   

adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地

参考例句：

• The scope of man's use of natural resources will steadily grow.人类利用自然资源的广度将日益扩大。
• Our educational reform was steadily led onto the correct path.我们的教学改革慢慢上轨道了。

15 snails   

n.蜗牛；迟钝的人；蜗牛( snail的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• I think I'll try the snails for lunch—I'm feeling adventurous today. 我想我午餐要尝一下蜗牛——我今天很想冒险。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Most snails have shells on their backs. 大多数蜗牛背上有壳。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 indicator   

n.指标；指示物，指示者；指示器

参考例句：

• Gold prices are often seen as an indicator of inflation.黃金价格常常被看作是通货膨胀的指标。
• His left-hand indicator is flashing.他左手边的转向灯正在闪亮。

17 sublimation   

n.升华，升华物，高尚化

参考例句：

• Presently, entrepreneurship, innovation and excellence-creating are the sublimation of the spirit. 在新的历史条件下，“创业创新创优”的三创精神是新时期江苏人文精神的升华。 来自互联网
• Luleng deems that public will is a sublimation of human's free volitions. 摘要卢梭认为，公意就是人类自由意志的升华。 来自互联网

18 verge   

n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• She was on the verge of bursting into tears.她快要哭出来了。

19 gulls   

n.鸥( gull的名词复数 )v.欺骗某人( gull的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• A flock of sea gulls are hovering over the deck. 一群海鸥在甲板上空飞翔。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The gulls which haunted the outlying rocks in a prodigious number. 数不清的海鸥在遥远的岩石上栖息。 来自辞典例句

20 melancholy   

n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的

参考例句：

• All at once he fell into a state of profound melancholy.他立即陷入无尽的忧思之中。
• He felt melancholy after he failed the exam.这次考试没通过，他感到很郁闷。

21 dome   

n.圆屋顶，拱顶

参考例句：

• The dome was supported by white marble columns.圆顶由白色大理石柱支撑着。
• They formed the dome with the tree's branches.他们用树枝搭成圆屋顶。

22 scent   

n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉

参考例句：

• The air was filled with the scent of lilac.空气中弥漫着丁香花的芬芳。
• The flowers give off a heady scent at night.这些花晚上散发出醉人的芳香。

23 fragrance   

n.芬芳，香味，香气

参考例句：

• The apple blossoms filled the air with their fragrance.苹果花使空气充满香味。
• The fragrance of lavender filled the room.房间里充满了薰衣草的香味。

24 humbling   

adj.令人羞辱的v.使谦恭( humble的现在分词 )；轻松打败（尤指强大的对手）；低声下气

参考例句：

• A certain humbling from time to time is good. 不时受点儿屈辱是有好处的。 来自辞典例句
• It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-buildingexperience. 据说天文学是一种令人产生自卑、塑造人格的科学。 来自互联网

25 awe   

n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧

参考例句：

• The sight filled us with awe.这景色使我们大为惊叹。
• The approaching tornado struck awe in our hearts.正在逼近的龙卷风使我们惊恐万分。