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usual situation for Pamela Lynch. KEY News has learned that Lynch’s only daughter, Maggie, was one of the victims raped by the man with the painted face of a clown.”

    LISTENING TO Jim’s even breathing from the other side of the bed, Cassie stared into the darkness, unable to sleep. After a day like the one she’d just had, she was pumped. She had scored an exclusive with the Pamela and Maggie Lynch information. Range had called from New York after the broadcast, heavy with praise.
    More important, she was going to New York to star on
Hourglass
. Though Jim and Hannah had been less than enthusiastic when she told them her news tonight, she convinced herself they would come around. The much larger salary she’d be pulling down would soften the blow. Jim wouldn’t even have to work if he didn’t want to. He could spend more time on his writing. And Hannah would make new friends.
    Opportunities like this were rare. Though it meant uprooting her family, Cassie hungered for the new job, one of the most coveted positions in network news.
    The move to New York might be good for the marriage, she rationalized. A fresh start in a new place. It might force them to depend on one another again.
    Like the old days.
    Cassie closed her eyes, willing sleep to come.
    The screech of the telephone pierced the darkened bedroom. She reached over to grab the phone, hoping that Jim wouldn’t wake.
    “Hello?” she whispered.
    “Cassie? It’s Steve Wagner on the assignment desk.”
    “Yes?”
    “I’m sorry to wake you, Cassie, but you shouldknow. Maggie Lynch jumped out the window of her mother’s apartment at the Watergate tonight.”
    Thursday, August 15
    The boat rocked, soothing her, as she held her manicured hand up to catch the soft light from the moon. She admired the brand-new ring that sparkled from her finger. The ruby in its golden setting matched the shade of her nail polish.
    Merilee had recognized the name on the jeweler’s box. The priciest store in town. He must have paid a pretty penny for this ring. It was clear he was smitten with her, exactly as she intended him to be.
    On the deck, she waited alone for him and dreamed, looking out at the lights twinkling from the shoreline, humming the tune she hoped would make her rich. She had big plans. A hit song, a piece of the action of Web of Desire Productions, and one way or another, a well-to-do husband were all in Merilee’s design for her future.
    Whatever was he doing down there for so long?
    She went below to find him, quietly sliding open the louvered door.
    “What are you doing, sugar?” she purred before she had time to take in the horror of his reflection in the small mirror that hung over the sink. White powder covered his face, garish blue makeup encircled his brown eyes.
    Caught, he spun to face her as she backed away in revulsion. His teeth looked yellow and nasty againstthe red of the painted mouth as he tried to persuade her that nothing was wrong.
    But this was wrong. All wrong.
    What kind of sick freak was he? The monster who stood before her certainly wasn’t the man she thought she knew. This man clearly had a side she had never seen before. A twisted, demented side. She had to get away.
    Merilee turned her back on him and scrambled up the ladder to the deck, sensing that he followed close behind. She considered jumping out into the dark waters of the Gulf, but the shore was far away and she didn’t know how to swim.
    Trapped.
    With no other choice, Merilee turned on the deck to confront the grotesque visage. “Get away from me, you sick freak.”
    As he edged closer, his eyes flashed with rage at her stinging words.
    Merilee’s face contorted in pain as his powerful fist smashed against her smooth cheek, the force of the blow knocking her against the railing of the rocking boat. She shook her head, desperately trying to clear it, as the clown reached down and grabbed her.

MONDAY
AUGUST 19

CHAPTER 1
    Vincent blinked his brown eyes, groggily