Those miserable brothers had raided the little silver pantries on both sides of the broad door to the great room, dragging out silver platters and teapots and leaving them strewn all over the alcove, just to make it look like a robbery, as if anyone was stupid enough to fall for that.
"Well, all of that has been put right," he said. He opened the doors on either side for Reuben to see. "You have plenty enough pantries in this house," he said, "what with those two pantries, and the butler,s pantry right there before you go into the kitchen. Hope you,re looking forward to a big family and lots of kids. There,s a closet down at that other end off the hallway and that,s full of china and silver, too."
Bracing himself Reuben followed the man into the kitchen. Very slowly, he turned to survey the floor, and discovered that the white marble had been covered by a series of oval braided throw rugs. Somewhere under all that was Marchent,s blood, probably visible in the grouting if not in the marble. He had no idea where she had fallen. He knew with all his heart he did not want to be in the room, and the idea of ladling up stew from the steaming pot on the stove was revolting to him. Revolting.
Eating right after a "death" had always revolted him. He remembered when Celeste,s brother had died in Berkeley. Reuben had not been able to eat or drink anything for days, without vomiting.
He was doing a very good job of concealing his distress. Galton was watching him, waiting.
"Look, you go ahead," said Reuben. "I give you carte blanche on the repairs." He opened his wallet and drew out a wad of bills. "This ought to start things off. And stock the freezer and the pantry, you know, with all the usual stuff. I know how to defrost and cook a leg of lamb. Get me a sack or two of potatoes, carrots, and onions. I can fend for myself. You just tend to everything. The main thing with me is privacy. I ask that nobody, I mean nobody, be admitted to the place except your workmen and only then when you,re with them yourself."
The man was pleased. He put the wad of bills in his pocket. He nodded to everything. He explained "those reporters" had been all around, snooping on the outside, but none had dared to come in, and then when the kidnapping happened, the reporters had vanished. "That,s the way it is today, with the Internet and all," said Galton. "Everything,s a flash in the pan, though now of course they,re talking about this Man Wolf in San Francisco, and people have been calling up here, you know. The police drove by here twice earlier."
Besides, the alarm had been connected since the police left the place. He had personally set the alarm as soon as the investigators were out. The family lawyer had seen to all that. Once that alarm was set, the entire ground floor was covered by motion detectors, glass breaker alarms, and contacts on all doors and windows.
"When that alarm goes off, it rings my house, and the local police station simultaneously. I call. They call. But no matter what they barrel on up here."
He gave Reuben the alarm code, showed him how to punch it in, and told him there was a keypad on the second floor that he could use to take off the motion detectors before he came downstairs in the morning. "Now, if you want it on while you,re still moving around, then you punch in the code and press HOME, and your windows and doors are covered without the motion detectors.
"Oh, and you have to have my e-mail. I check my e-mail all day. You e-mail me about anything you find wrong up here. I,m on it." He held up his iPhone proudly. "Oh you just call me. This phone,s right by my bed all night."
Not to worry about the furnaces either. The old gas furnaces were relatively new, considering the age of the place, and there was absolutely no asbestos in the place. They were keeping the house at about sixty-nine degrees, which was how Marchent had liked it. Of course a lot of the vents were closed off. But wasn,t it warm enough in here now?
And by the way, there,s a cellar under this house, a small cellar, with a stairs under the main stairs. Forgot about that. Nothing down there, however, because all the furnaces were moved out back into the service wing years ago.
"Yes, fine," said Reuben.
The Internet service was connected too, just as Miss Marchent had had it before. The service covered the whole house. There was a router in her office and in the second-floor electrical room at the end of the hall up there.
Reuben was happy about all that.
Reuben walked Galton to the back door.
For the first time under the high floodlights in the trees he saw a broad parking area and the back two-story servants, wing to the far left where, apparently, Felice had been murdered. It was obviously a later addition to the house.
He could see almost nothing of the forest beyond the lights, just here and there a bit of green and the streak of light on the bark of a tree.
Are you out there? Are you watching? Do you remember the man you spared when you killed the others?
Galton had a brand-new Ford truck and discoursed on its virtues for several minutes. Few things made a man feel better than a brand-new truck. Reuben might want to keep a truck on the property, would come in handy. But then Galton,s truck was at Reuben,s disposal. Then he was off with the promise that he could be here in ten minutes if Reuben rang his cell or house phone.
"One last question," Reuben said. "I have the surveyor,s maps and all, but is there any kind of fencing around this property?"
"No," said the man. "The redwoods run on for miles, with some of the oldest trees on the coast out there. But you don,t get many hikers. This is too off the beaten path. They,re all headed for the state parks. The Hamiltons live north and the Drexel family used to live east but I don,t think there,s anybody out there anymore. That place has been for sale for years. I did see a light out there a couple of weeks ago. Probably just a real estate agent. They,ve got trees on that property as old as your trees."
"I can,t wait to walk the woods," Reuben murmured but what he was registering was that he was really alone here. Alone.
Come to think of it, what could be better when the change came - than to walk these woods as the Man Wolf, seeing and hearing - and perhaps tasting things - as never before?
And what about the mountain lion and her brood? Were they really close? Something in him stirred at the thought of it - a beast as powerful as a mountain lion. Could he outrun such an animal? Could he kill it?
He stood for a moment in the kitchen door listening as the sound of Galton,s truck died away, and then he turned around and faced the empty house and everything that had happened there.
Chapter Nine
HE HADN,T BEEN the least bit afraid of anything when he,d come here the first time. And now he was far more removed from fear than he,d been then. He felt quietly powerful, resilient, and self-confident in a way he,d never felt before the transformation.