"That's it, I'm afraid," she said. "I don't have any unusual hobbies. I'm not a very 
interesting person. Low-key. Dull, even."
  Damning herself for being unable to order the bastard out of her house, she slipped 
past him and went to the oven, ostensibly to check that it was finished preheating, but 
she was really just trying to get out of Streck's reach.
  He followed her, staying close. "When I pulled up out front, I saw lots of flowers. You 
tend the flowers?"
  Staring at the oven dials, she said, "Yes . . . I like gardening."
  "I approve of that," he said, as if she ought to care whether he approved or not. 
"Flowers . . . that's a good thing for a woman to have an interest in. Cooking, 
needlepoint, gardening-why you're just full of womanly interests and talents. I'll bet 
you do everything well, Mrs. Devon. I mean everything a woman should do. I'll bet you're 
a first-rate woman in every department."
  If be touches me, I'll scream, she thought.
  However, the walls of the old house were thick, and the neighbors were some distance 
away. No one would hear her or come to her rescue.
  I'll kick him, she thought. I'll fight back.
  But, in fact, she was not sure that she would fight, was not sure that she had the 
gumption to fight. Even if she did attempt to defend herself, he was bigger and stronger 
than she was.
  "Yeah, I'll bet you're a first-rate woman in every department," he repeated, delivering 
the line more provocatively than before.
  Turning from the oven, she forced a laugh. "My husband would be astonished to hear 
that. I'm not too bad at cakes, but I've still not learned to make a decent piecrust, and 
my pot roast always turns out bone-dry. My needlepoint's not half bad, but it takes me 
forever to get anything done." She slipped past him and returned to the counter. She was 
amazed to hear herself chattering on as she opened the box of icing mix. Desperation made 
her garrulous. "I've got a green thumb with flowers, but I'm not much of a housekeeper, 
and if my husband didn't help out-why, this place would be a disaster."
  She thought she sounded phony. She detected a note of hysteria in her voice that had to 
be evident to him. But the mention of a husband had obviously given Art Streck second 
thoughts about pushing her further. As Nora poured the mix into a bowl and measured out 
the required butter, Streck drank the water she had given him. He went to the sink and 
put the empty glass in the dishpan with the dirty bowls and utensils. This time he did 
not press unnecessarily close to her.
  "Well, I better get back to work," he said.
  She gave him a calculatedly distracted smile, and nodded. She began to hum softly as 
she returned to her own task, as if untroubled.
  He crossed the kitchen and pushed open the swinging door, then stopped and said, "Your 
aunt really liked dark places, didn't she? This kitchen would be swell, too, if you 
brightened it up."
  Before she could respond, he went out, letting the door swing shut behind him.
  In spite of his unasked-for opinion of the kitchen decor, Streck seemed to have pulled 
in his horns, and Nora was pleased with herself. Using a few white lies about her 
nonexistent husband, delivered with admirable equanimity, she had handled him after all. 
That was not exactly the way a cat would have dealt with an aggressor, but it was not the 
timid, frightened behavior of a mouse, either.
  She looked around at the high-ceilinged kitchen and decided it was too dark. The walls 
were a muddy blue. The frosted globes of the overhead lights were opaque, shedding a 
drab, wintry glow. She considered having the kitchen repainted, the lights replaced.
  Merely to contemplate making major changes in Violet Devon's house was dizzying, 
exhilarating. Nora had redone her own bedroom since Violet's death, but nothing else. 
Now, wondering if she could follow through with extensive redecoration, she felt wildly 
daring and rebellious. Maybe. Maybe she could. If she could fend off Streck, maybe she 
could dredge up the courage to defy her dead aunt.
  Her upbeat self-congratulatory mood lasted just twenty minutes, which was long enough 
to put the cake pans in the oven and whip up the icing and wash some of the bowls and 
utensils. Then Streck returned to tell her the TV set was repaired and to give her the 
bill. Though he had seemed subdued when he left the kitchen, he was as cocky as ever when 
he entered the second time. He looked her up and down as if undressing her in his 
imagination, and when he met her eyes he gave her a challenging look.
  She thought the bill was too high, but she did not question it because she wanted him 
out of the house quickly. As she sat at the kitchen table to write the check, he pulled 
the now-familiar trick of standing too close to her, trying to cow her with his 
masculinity and superior size. When she stood and handed him the check, he contrived to 
take it in such a way that his hand touched hers suggestively.
  All the way along the hail, Nora was more than half-convinced that he would suddenly 
put down his tool kit and attack her from behind. But she got to the door, and he stepped 
past her onto the veranda, and her racing heart began to slow to a more normal pace.
  He hesitated just outside the door. "What's your husband do?"
  The question disconcerted her. It was something he might have asked earlier, in the 
kitchen, when she had spoken of her husband, but now his curiosity seemed inappropriate.
  She should have told him it was none of his business, but she was still afraid of him. 
She sensed that he could be easily angered, that the pent-up violence in him could be 
triggered with minor effort. So she answered him with another lie, one she hoped would 
make him reluctant to harass her any further: "He's a. . . policeman."
  Streck raised his eyebrows. "Really? Here in Santa Barbara?"
  "That's right."
  "Quite a house for a policeman."
  "Excuse me?" she said.
  "Didn't know policemen were paid so well."
  "Oh, but I told you-I inherited the house from my aunt."
  "Of course, I remember now. You told me. That's right."
  Trying to reinforce the lie, she said, "We were living in an apartment when my aunt 
died, and then we moved here. You're right-we wouldn't have been able to afford it 
otherwise."
  "Well," he said, "I'm happy for you. I sure am. A lady as pretty as you deserves a 
pretty house."
  He tipped an imaginary hat to her, winked, and went along the walk toward the street, 
where his white van was parked at the curb.
  She closed the door and watched him through a clear segment of the leaded, 
stained-glass oval window in the center of the door. He glanced back, saw her, and waved. 
She stepped away from the window, into the gloomy hallway, and watched him from a point 
at which she could not be seen.
  Clearly, he hadn't believed her. He knew the husband was a lie. She shouldn't have said 
she was married to a cop, for God's sake; that was too obvious an attempt to dissuade 
him. She should have said she was married to a plumber or doctor, anything but a cop. 
Anyway, Art Streck was leaving. Though he knew she was lying, he was leaving.
  She did not feel safe until his van was out of sight.
  Actually, even then, she did not feel safe.