Read Online Demon Child by Dean Koontz - Free Book Online Page B

eh?”
        She felt uneasy, as if he were leading her to some question he especially wanted to ask. “Reading, I think,” she said.
        “I'm so used to hearing the cleats of riding boots that you managed to sneak up on me this morning.” He smiled. “I didn't hear you until you were in the kitchen.”
        She knew he was wondering whether she had missed his phone conversation by moments-or whether, perhaps she had heard it while waiting on the stairs. What would he do to her if he knew the truth? Anything? Or was she misinterpreting all this?
        “You didn't hear me nearly break my neck on the stairs?” she asked. It surprised her how swiftly a lie had formed itself in her mind.
        “You hurt yourself?” he asked, though he did not seem as concerned as he might have.
        “Oh,” she said, “now I know you're putting me on. You heard, and you're teasing me about it. These darn slippers have extra toe room. One of them bent under and nearly pitched me down the last five steps. I kept my feet, but not without some clattering.”
        He relaxed visibly. “Get yourself a new pair. Or borrow another pair from Cora if your feet match. Those stairs are steep enough to make an accident permanent if you tripped near the top of them.”
        “I'll ask her what size she wears,” Jenny said.
        He finished his coffee, rose. “If you'll excuse me, I have some affairs to attend to in town, before Dr. Hobarth's arrival. If he gets here before I'm back, he gets the walnut-paneled room on the east wing.”
        “He's staying then?” Jenny asked.
        “That's one of the benefits of Brucker wealth. We can have the head-shrinker come to our couch instead of going to his.” He smiled. It was a winning, boyish smile, but she could not be assured by it. “Seriously, though, we expect two or three weeks here ought to do it. He's one of these modern psychiatrists who use hypnosis to make the subject recall things he wouldn't ordinarily want to. With a child Freya's age, it won't take him very long to examine her past memories. Especially under the intensive daily sessions he plans. Besides, Cora was adamant. She won't send Freya away from the house again. The doctor had to come to us, or there wasn't going to be any doctor. Fortunately, Malmont persuaded Dr. Hobarth that the case was unique enough to warrant such an expenditure of his time. I think the fee we offered had something to do with it as well.”
        “Do you think that a psychiatrist is what Freya needs? Do you think she'll be helped?”
        He watched her a moment, his expression clouding from a rather forced good humor to a dark uncertainty. But he spoke with stern assurance. “Of course she'll be helped. Of course it's psychological, Jenny. What on earth- Do you mean you're beginning to swallow some of this supernatural drivel that Cora dotes on?”
        “No, no,” she said.
        But she was not sure whether she had accepted the existence of curses and werewolves or whether she believed more in modern psychiatric medicine.
        “You've been reading some of Cora's books, I gather,” he said.
        “A couple of them yes”
        “My stepmother is a wonderful woman,” he said. “But she was always one for simple explanations. The occult, spooks and spirits, always appealed to her. If you believe in the supernatural, then the complex workings of the world can be made to look simple. You can say evil is the result of the work of bad spirits and ignore the complex nature of evil in men. When father died, she got stuck on such things even more. I try to dissuade her. It's not very healthy to believe a thousand different silly superstitions.”
        “I guess not,” she said.
        “No guessing about it.”
        She did not respond. She felt as if he were trying to bait her into some sort of argument. She could see his temper flaring a little, though she could not understand his constant readiness to