4. Down the Rabbit Hole (D2)

__ Ardy turned, coiled away from Munson as he approached her, demanding again, "C'mon, now, sweety. Tell me how you knew about Clye."
__ She glanced to the side, down, away, away from his eyes -- those terrible black eyes. Then a tiny orange glow caught her attention. The cigarette he smashed out was not yet completely deprived of fuel. An ember, a faint red star seemed to get brighter as her eyes locked on it.
__ Ardy felt herself catapult from the couch, the handcuffs melting away as she rocketed toward the orange glow that intensified and bloomed around her. She gasped and sighed as she felt herself sore and simultaneously shrink. The room became a vast dark cavern, the ember before her a forest fire.

__ She was looking out the window, through the neon glow of the PSYCHIC sign distorted by rivulets of streaming rainwater, and scratching the stubble on her chin. Stubble? Wait. No. It's happening again. I'm him. I --
__ Ardy -- inside the man -- looked over toward the couch and saw herself reclining there asleep. As she watched, she experienced R. Lee Munson's thoughts. He wanted her. He did want her that way, but he didn't want to rape her. He wanted her to give in to him, to actually desire him as a lover, consensually, as a wife. A wife!?
__ Aware of his thoughts, but also in control of her own mind, she could hardly believe the patterns that were shifting in his head. Maybe I'm imposing this myself, because I'm afraid he'll attack me. No. No, it's real. I know it's real because.
__Because R. Lee Munson's mind, like every other human brain, didn't remain focussed on one thing for long. Other flights -- memories, plans, ideas, dreams, distractions -- raced through in silvery streaks of thought. Munson, as Ardy experienced it, imagined a small house in the country, coming home through a swinging white picket fence. A young red haired boy comes running, shouting, "Daddy! Daddy! What'd you bring me?" Munson's lunch pail, Ardy can see as she looks down the suited sleeve to the hand in the mind flash, has his initials on it: RLM. "Hello, dear. How was your day?" And Ardy looks up into her own face through his eyes. There, Ardelene Jacobi, happy housewife complete with apron. Her name in the flash is Ardy Munson. That sounds better, he thinks, and she feels him think it.
__ But that happened in a fraction of an instant within a second. Other things that flash are memories from the last time he smoked a cigarette. Apparently, it had been several years. The pack Ardy had was giving him a pleasant buzz and the pull of the tobacco was calling him back.
__ And he thought about Clye, the man in the suit. The lawyer. A flash: A nameplate on a door that reads, Clyde R. Morrow, Family Law. And another flash, an instant where the lawyer began unbuttoning his shirt and winking, and the lawyer's ham sandwich breath close and repugnant on R. Lee Munson's face as the man steps up to him and touches his --
__ A sound outside pulls the distracting thoughts of R. Lee Munson, and Ardy the observer, back to the window. A seething hatred of the homosexual attorney brews deep within Munson and he feels the urge to kill again. Outside, a semi tractor-trailer roars by.
__ Again, he turns his attention to Ardy on the couch. She's propped up on an elbow now, awakened by the sound of the semi. Inside his head, Ardy hears herself say, "Don't go out there. If you go out to move the truck, they'll kill you."
__ Munson snorts and flash-thinks about being gunned down by marshals, then quickly dismisses the thought while simultaneously realizing the gypsy's right. He has to move the truck.
__ Seizing the keys he spotted earlier on a pegboard near the door, R. Lee Munson steps out into the rain. He steps up to Ardelene's pick-up and climbs into the cab.
__ That's the precise moment a beige Covert, Indiana squad car pulls up diagonally next to Munson's car one space over. Suddenly panicked, he throws the truck into drive instead of reverse and it lurches forward, jumping the curb and smashing the glass panes and the neon PSYCHIC sign which jiggles and sways until the cord gives out.
__ "It's him! It's him!" shouts one of the deputies. They raise their service revolvers as Munson springs from the driver's door.
__ Spinning, not sure where to run (and Ardy getting dizzy as she goes along for the ride in the killer's head), he finally picks a direction -- the cornfield across the road.
__ He feels the impact in his back before he hears the black police revolver explode. Immediately thinking his spine is shattered by the hollow-point lead, because his legs collapse under him, R. Lee Munson falls face-down across the double yellow lines of the old rural road. Another shot stings the back of his skull and --

__ Ardy woke from the vision as a roaring semi truck rocketed past the main window. Propping herself up onto her elbow, she saw Munson stare at her. She knew exactly what was on his mind.
She had just come from there. Wait a minute. Where was I? When?
__ "Don't go out there!"
__ Munson glanced at her, appeared to consider something, then set his jaw with resolve.
__ "I'm serious! Don't go out to move the truck. They'll kill you!"
__ Then he was gone.