Parents care as well. And Annie had started to kill even healthy babies. They must have all seemed to her to be 'poor, poor things' by now - now that she was even crazier than before. Five babies died between January and March 1982. A hospital investigation found nothing suspicious in their deaths - which was not surprising, thought Paul, since Annie was the chief nurse of the department and was probably doing the investigation herself. Another baby had died in April. Two in May. Then at the beginning of June there was a newspaper report with the heading: NURSE WILKES QUESTIONED ON BABY DEATHS Window Type Air-Conditioner.

The police were reported as saying that she was not under arrest and they were not accusing her of anything: they were just questioning her. And the next day: NURSE WILKES RELEASED. She had got away with it. How? Paul couldn't imagine, but she had got away with it. Now, he thought, she will move to another hospital in another town. But no: she was too insane for that now. 43 The Boulder News, 2 July: THE HORROR CONTINUES: THPEE MORE BABIES DIE. Pages and pages of the album contained reports of Annie's arrest and trial. Annie had also included a selection of letters from the citizens of Boulder that had been printed in the newspaper?. It was clear that she had chosen the most vicious of the letters - those which reminded her that everyone was against her and that it was their fault. The newspapers began to call her 'the Dragon Lady'100w box mod.

But there was not enough evidence. On 16 December the huge heading in the paper read: DRAGON LADY INNOCENT! There were plenty more pages in the album, but few of them had been used. Annie had kept any further reports that she had seen about the baby deaths, but there were no more killings until 1984. The Sidewinder Gazette had of that year the discovery of the body of a young man called Andrew Pomeroy. What was left of his body - some bits had been cut off with an axe - had been found in a stream bed quite a few miles from the town. How far from here? Paul wondered. He turned the page and looked at the last report in the album elyze.

For a moment his breath stopped: it was about him! The report was only two weeks old. It had been cut out from Newsweek and told how 'famous novelist Paul Sheldon, last seen seven weeks ago in Boulder, Colorado' was missing. The reporter had interviewed Paul's agent, but she had not been worried, probably because she thought Paul was staying with a woman he had met! Well, that was true, thought Paul. He put the album down carefully so that Annie would not see that it had been moved. He felt sick and close to tears. Outside, the wind suddenly blew heavy rain against the house and Paul jumped in fear. An hour later, full of Novril, the wind seemed comforting rather than frightening. He was thinking: So there's no way out. You can't escape, and Superman's too busy making films in Hollywood. But there's one thing you can do. Can you, Paul? Can you do it? The only way out of this was to kill her. Yes, I can. CH A PTER FIFTEEN The storm continued throughout the next day. The following night the clouds blew away and the temperature dropped.