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Eventually, she realized that there was no one there.
Only then did she draw her drapes and turn on the lights.
TWELVE
Half an hour later, refreshed and relaxed by a hot shower and a couple of glasses of cold tap water
that quenched some of the fire in her throat, she had pulled back the covers and was getting into bed
when someone knocked at her door. From the solid, forceful, rapid pounding, she knew that it was
Rudolph Saine, though she could not imagine what he might want to ask her now. Surely, he had covered
everything, earlier, in the kitchen. Wearily, resigned to the fact that she'd have to wait a bit longer before
ending the night, she turned her back on the bed and went to see what Saine wanted.
 Yes? she asked, when she opened the door.
She was wearing a high-necked, oriental pa-jama which covered her bruised throat, and she felt less
self-conscious than she had earlier.
 I'm sorry to bother you, Saine said. But he was clearly not sorry, for he was only doing his job, still,
and he was not the sort of man to apolo-gize for what duty necessitated.
 I wasn't asleep yet, she said.
He nodded.  There have been new develop-ments within the last half hour, things I thought you
should know about.
She felt that she probably didn't want to know, no matter what these new developments were, but
she also knew he was going to tell her anyway, even if she would prefer to remain ignorant.
He said,  Of course, we have no conventional telephones, as you know them, here on Distingue.
When we wish to place a call, we contact the ma-rine operator on Guadeloupe, by means of our
radio-telephone which is kept upstairs, in Mr. Dougherty's study. The Guadeloupe marine operator then
dials the number we want, in a con-ventional manner, and makes a patch between the mainland line
telephones and our radio-phone. It sounds very complicated, but it is really quite sim-ple and efficient, as
it would have to be for all the business Mr. Dougherty has to do by telephone. It's more expensive than
normal telephone service, but Mr. Dougherty hardly worries about expense.
Relaxed a moment ago, Sonya felt a minimum of tension slowly creeping back into her, like dirty
water. Rudolph Saine was usually a man of few words, direct and to the point. In offering this long
explanation of the radio-phone, he seemed to be avoiding, for as long as possible, some ugly bit of news.
 Though the radio-telephone is simple and efficient, it is also vulnerable, he said.  It does not
function well during bad weather, and not at all during a major seasonal storm. And with a sin-gle
hammer blow, anyone could mangle enough of its insides to make it useless. He cleared his throat and
delivered the bad news:  Someone has done just that. They smashed a number of tubes which I might
have been able to replace from our stores. But they also wrecked much of the printed circuitry, which I
can't repair without expert help.
 Who? she asked.
 The same man who attacked you, I presume. Or someone who's working with him.
 How could he get into Seawatch, clear up to the third floor where the radio-telephone is?
Saine smiled sourly.  If he lived here, that would be no problem at all: a flight of stairs, an unlocked
door . . . He shrugged.
 Then you're still convinced that it's a member of the household staff? she asked.
 Yes. But I'm not overlooking other possibili-ties. If there is a stranger on Distingue, he could have
entered the house in a number of ways, lo-cated the radio-telephone and demolished it while I was
questioning everyone in the kitchen.
 How would he even know about its existence? she asked.
 He would know that no telephone lines are run to small islands like Distingue, and he would also
know that a man like Mr. Dougherty would re-quire constant communications with the outside world.
Even a psychotic can reason out something like that. He seemed, by his tone, to be castigat-ing himself
for allowing anyone to get at the radio-phone, as if he should have been at two places at once, in order to
prevent such a disaster.
 Then you've not been able to call the Dough-ertys?
 No, he said.  But I'm sending Bill Peterson to Guadeloupe to make the call and to bring back some
island police officials. Our man has gotten suddenly bold, and I don't want to take any more chances; I
don't want to give him even the slight-est opening at the children.
 Of course, Sonya said. And though she longed for the big, comfortable bed and a lengthy, deep
sleep, she said,  What can I do to help, until the police get here?
 Nothing, Saine said.
 I'm really feeling all right, she protested.  I probably look worse than I actually am.
 I'll be with Alex and Tina, he said.  In their room, with the door locked and my revolver
un-holstered. No one's going to get to them before we get some help here. I just wanted everyone in the
house to know what's happened. And I wanted to recommend that you keep your door latched, as I see
you already had done.
She nodded, feeling slightly numb.
She recalled, against her will, Lynda Spauld-ing's warnings, and she wondered when, on top of
everything else that had gone wrong, they could expect the hurricane . . .
 And one other thing, Saine said.
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