Rook & Tooth and Claw by Graham Masterton Page A

Let’s see if we can deal with this problem in-house.”
    “I’m warning you,” Jim told him. “This guy is not an ordinary guy. Not by any stretch of the imagination.”
    Dr Ehrlichman took off his spectacles and looked at Jimbulgy-eyed. “I don’t think you’re the one who ought to be talking about stretches of the imagination, Jim. Nobody else saw your man in black yesterday, and so far nobody’s seen him today.”
    “Then come look,” Jim urged him.
    “When Mr Wallechinsky’s here – then, yes, I will.”
    Jim said, “I was talking to a woman last night. She’s kind of an expert when it comes to things like this. She said that it’s possible for some people to leave their bodies and walk around. They don’t have to be dead or anything. But the whole point is, only certain people can see them. People who have come within a whisker of dying. That near-death experience gives them an ability to see things that most people can’t. Dr Ehrlichman, we have invisible spirits walking among us, all the time. But the trouble is, we simply don’t have the eyes to see.”
    Dr Ehrlichman replaced his glasses and stared at him as if he was having an afternoon off from the madhouse. “You haven’t been drinking, Jim, have you?”
    “Of course not. What do you want to do, smell my breath?”
    “You haven’t been smoking? Or snorting? Or whatever it is you people do these days?”
    “I’m a teacher, Dr Ehrlichman. I don’t come to college stoned or drunk or even impatient.”
    Dr Ehrlichman looked unconvinced, but at that moment George Wallechinsky arrived, six feet five inches of lumpy human tissue in a tight brown uniform. His face was broad, with two tiny expressionless eyes, buried in his flesh like two sultanas buried in a bread pudding.
    “George,” said Dr Ehrlichman, briskly, “it seems like we’ve got ourselves an intruder. Mr Rook says that he’s locked himself into the geography room.”
    Wallechinsky sniffed, and cleared his throat. “How long ago was this?”
    “Five minutes; not more.”
    “Did you ever see the individual before?”
    “Sure. I saw him yesterday, coming out the boiler-house, just before Elvin was killed. In fact he was the only reason I went over there, to see what was going on.”
    “You sure it’s the same individual?”
    “Believe me, Mr Wallechinsky, there’s only one guy like this.”
    “Okay, then. Let’s go take a look. You’re sure he’s not a college inspector? Sometimes they send inspectors by surprise.”
    Wallechinsky waddled steadfastly in front of them, all the way down the corridor, his keys jingling on his belt. “This it?” He stopped outside the door of the geography room and looked inside, stooping down so that he could see the ceiling, then angling his head close to the glass so that he could see the floors and corners.
    “This room is empty, so far as I can see,” he reported. He tried the handle, rattling and shaking it, but it was still locked, or jammed, and he gave it up.
    “Did he have any kind of weapon?” he asked Jim.
    “Is he there?” Dr Ehrlichman demanded.
    “Well, I can’t see anything, Mr Principal, sir; but that doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s nothing there. He could be pressing himself flat against the wall here; or behind this here bookcase; or even under the teacher’s desk.”
    Dr Ehrlichman pressed his nose flat against the window. “No,” he said. “He’s gone. That’s if he ever existed at all.”
    Jim said, “He was there, Dr Ehrlichman. He even spoke to me.”
    “I’d like a talk with you later, Jim,” Dr Ehrlichman told him. “Mr Wallechinsky, you’d better call the police and tell them it was a false alarm.”
    “I’d like to check the room first, Dr Ehrlichman,” said Wallechinsky. He lifted his keyring, heavy with all kinds of keys, and picked out the one which would open the geography-room door. He inserted it, and turned.
    “It’s not locked,” he said, in surprise.
    “What do you