Page 27 of City of Night


  As he tells it, the halls of our modest county hospital had become a white labyrinth, and at least twice he made wrong turns. Too impatient to wait for the elevator, he raced down the stairs from the third floor to the ground level before realizing that he’d passed the second floor, on which the maternity ward was located.

  Dad arrived in the expectant-fathers’ waiting lounge to the crack of a pistol as Konrad Beezo shot his wife’s doctor.

  For an instant, Dad thought Beezo had used a clown gun, some trick firearm that squirted red ink. The doctor dropped to the floor, however, not with comic flair but with hideous finality, and the smell of blood plumed thick, too real.

  Beezo turned to Dad and raised the pistol.

  In spite of the rumpled porkpie hat and the short-sleeved coat and the bright patch on the seat of his pants, in spite of the white greasepaint and the rouged cheeks, nothing about Konrad Beezo was clownish at that moment. His eyes were those of a jungle cat, and it was easy to imagine that the teeth bared in his snarl were tiger fangs. He loomed, the embodiment of murderous dementia, demonic.

  Dad thought that he, too, would be shot, but Beezo said, “Stay out of my way, Rudy Tock. I have no quarrel with you. You’re not an aerialist.”

  Beezo shouldered through the door between the lounge and the maternity ward, slammed it shut behind him.

  Dad knelt beside the doctor—and discovered that a breath of life remained in him. The wounded man tried to speak, could not. Blood had pooled in his throat, and he gagged.

  Gently elevating the physician’s head, shoving old magazines under it to brace the man at an angle that allowed him to breathe, Dad shouted for help as the swelling storm rocked the night with doomsday peals of thunder.

  Dr. Ferris MacDonald had been Maddy’s physician. He had also been called upon to treat Natalie Beezo when, unexpectedly, she had been brought to the hospital in labor.

  Mortally wounded, he seemed more bewildered than frightened. Able to clear his throat and breathe now, he told my father, “She died during delivery, but it wasn’t my fault.”

  For a terrifying moment, my dad thought Maddy had died.

  Dr. MacDonald realized this, for his last words were “Not Maddy. The clown’s wife. Maddy…is alive. I’m so sorry, Rudy.”

  Ferris MacDonald died with my father’s hand upon his heart.

  As the thunder rolled toward a far horizon, Dad heard another gunshot from beyond the door through which Konrad Beezo had vanished.

  Maddy lay somewhere behind that door—a woman left helpless by a difficult labor. I was back there, too—an infant who was not yet enough of a lummox to defend himself.

  My father, then a baker, had never been a man of action; nor did he become one when, a few years later, he graduated to the status of pastry chef. He is of average height and weight, not physically weak but not born for the boxing ring, either. He had to that point led a charmed life, without serious want, without any strife.

  Nevertheless, fear for his wife and his child cast him into a strange, cold panic marked more by calculation than by hysteria. Without a weapon or a plan, but suddenly with the heart of a lion, he opened that door and went after Beezo.

  Although his imagination spun a thousand bloody scenarios in mere seconds, he says that he did not anticipate what was about to happen, and of course he could not foresee how the events of that night would reverberate through the next thirty years with such terrible and astonishing consequences in his life and mine.

  AVAILABLE NOW

  FOREVER ODD

  by

  DEAN KOONTZ

  #1 New York Times Bestselling Author

  The long-awaited sequel to

  ODD THOMAS,

  The magical bestseller beloved by readers and acclaimed by reviewers:

  “Once in a very great while, an author does everything right-as Koontz has in this marvelous novel [which] features electrifying tension and suspense, plus a few walloping surprises. This thriller also stands out for its brilliant tightrope walk between the amusing and the macabre. Koontz has created a hero whose honest, humble voice will resonate with many. This is Koontz working at his pinnacle, providing terrific entertainment that deals seriously with some of the deepest themes of human existence: the nature of evil, the grip of fate and the power of love.”

  —Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

  “Odd Thomas [is] exactly the kind of hero that’s needed.”

  —South Florida Sun-Sentinel

  “Odd Thomas is another name for courage, truth, and devotion to your fellow man.”

  —The Baton Rouge Advocate

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  DEAN KOONTZ, the author of many #1 New York Times bestsellers, lives with his wife, Gerda, and the enduring spirit of their golden retriever, Trixie, in southern California.

  Correspondence for the author should be addressed to:

  Dean Koontz

  P.O. Box 9529

  Newport Beach, CA 92658

  ALSO BY DEAN KOONTZ

  Velocity

  Life Expectancy

  The Taking

  Odd Thomas

  The Face

  By the Light of the Moon

  One Door Away from Heaven

  From the Corner of His Eye

  False Memory

  Seize the Night

  Fear Nothing

  Mr. Murder

  Dragon Tears

  Hideaway

  Cold Fire

  The Bad Place

  Midnight

  Lightning

  Watchers

  Strangers

  Twilight Eyes

  Darkfall

  Phantoms

  Whispers

  The Mask

  The Vision

  The Face of Fear

  Night Chills

  Shattered

  The Voice of the Night

  The Servants of Twilight

  The House of Thunder

  The Key to Midnight

  The Eyes of Darkness

  Shadowfires

  Winter Moon

  The Door to December

  Dark Rivers of the Heart

  Icebound

  Strange Highways

  Intensity

  Sole Survivor

  Ticktock

  The Funhouse

  Demon Seed

  DEAN KOONTZ’S FRANKENSTEIN

  Book One: Prodigal Son • with Kevin J. Anderson

  DEAN KOONTZ’S FRANKENSTEIN

  BOOK TWO: CITY OF NIGHT

  A Bantam Book / August 2005

  Published by

  Bantam Dell

  A Division of Random House, Inc.

  New York, New York

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved

  Copyright © 2005 by Dean Koontz

  Cover art and design by Jorge Martínez

  Bantam Books and the rooster colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

  www.bantamdell.com

  eISBN: 978-0-307-41422-9

  v3.0

 


 

  Dean Koontz, City of Night

  (Series: Dean Koontz's Frankenstein # 2)

 

 


 

 
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