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Mark scowled at the sudden change in topic "Huh?"

"I thought you were only like twenty-one or soh to do all of this"

"What? Is there some unwritten Gautier manual on what a person can and can’t do with their life? Really? My birthday’s in Noveraduated when I was seventeen Blew out ht before I turned nineteen and doubled up on raduate by twenty And for the record, I’h for you, or you want et so testy I was just curious I thought you told er"

"You want to see my license?"

Nick held his hands up in surrender He could have sworn Mark had told hi with hiet their attention "And this is a little round" He shoved another piece of paper into Nick’s face "Reia?"

"Yeah, and the next day they were all killed" Nick was now holding the article that had been written about it

"Exactly" Mark gave him a third piece of paper with another football tearaph was a year later and …

Holy snikes …

It was Devus again This ti in front of the players Nick stared in disbelief

Surely there was some mistake

He lined the pictures up side by side and coes with the photos blown up larger so that he could see all the details in their faces

Yeah, there was no denying it They were all the same man "How can this be?"

Mark rubbed his chin "Apparently, that’s his MO Coach appears to lead a team to victory and a championship Then the day after they win, all the players and the coach die" He handed Nick es "Year, after year, after year"

Nick shook his head "No, no, no It’s not possible Why would he let theraph him and keep records? For that matter, why keep his name the same? Wouldn’t that be stupid?"

"He didn’t keep his name all the time," Mark said "If you look at the articles--and believe me, we have--he has a list of names he recycles I think Walter Devus was his real name, but honestly we don’t know He’s used a lot over the last century"

Well, that made more sense If you wanted to hide, you couldn’t always be you "Okay, but why have your pictureyou’re ile photo of hi, bust Nothing

"I’ pulled out another paper where they’d charted all the schools Devus, if it was Devus, had taught at "Think about it Before now, pictures weren’t all that clear, and they daed easy Once you left your little town, the chances of the next one having seen your photograph were pretty slim It’s only now that we have Photoshop and coes up and compare them More than that, we have online libraries, archives, and depositories where we can pull out thetoday, and once it goes online, it’s there forever, just waiting for someone to stumble on it So re someone and want to post it so that up?

One little ht his attention back to the subject at hand "And once we’d figured out his MO, it was easy to start looking for a chaht, then died the next day Every year, like clockwork, there’s always one teah school all the way down to Little League But it’s always the same sequence of events"

That news sickened hiue? "He kills kids?" As soon as he said that, he realized how stupid his stateue right now because of him "We have to stop this"

"We know," they said in unison

Nick gestured to the papers around theaped at Mark "What do youhanded hister era, when thewith newsreel footage that was shown in movie theaters across the country, Devus wised up and stopped having his picturecoach and then step in just long enough to win the championship and supposedly die with his tea-tere," Mark added

Maybe, but Nick kept co "Then how do you know it’s hiave him a duh stare "Really? You asked le year across the country, one team and one teaht as they’re heading to the play-offs? Then the school or rec center is desperate for an experienced replacehly the sah for the chaames, and takes his team to victory And while drunk on their laurels, whaether "They all die You really think that’s just a coincidence?"

Well … no "Not when you put it that way But a cop will never believe this"

"You think?" Mark sighed "No one would believe us They’d all think ere high on so again without going to the authorities?"

"Turn lower at Madaug "I know you didn’t go there, given what almost happened to your fa tothehts raced as pieces slowly fell into place

You can use personal iteto happen to someone in particular, you take an item from them and you can use that as a focal point It’s the same principle that the pendulum works under

Grim’s words haunted him Now he understood his list The coach needed those specific items from all the football players

But then what did he do with theame was over and the owners were killed? Since his ho them didn’t seem feasible Maybe he threw the was to break the cycle, especially since Nick was on the teaht you didn’t want to live

Well, that was true, but it didn’t mean he wanted to die He only wanted his life to cal off the tracks at warp speed toward Insanityville

Madaug’s phone rang He picked it up and cringed "Dang it It’s my little brother"

"Is that so bad?" Mark asked

"Uh, yeah Ian’s voice is so high-pitched on the phone that I swear if we bottled it and put it in a grenade, we could make a fortune as arms dealers It’d clear en bo for the day when that kid hits puberty and his voice drops down to a hu when Madaug answered it and he heard for hilass A screech de on this kid And it wasn’t even in his ear He was standing several feet away

Even Mark was cringing

"All right All right," Madaug said to his younger brother "Stop whining, you little brat I’ll be hoto erase Eric’s hard drive and tell Dad you did it" Madaug hung up as Ian whined a very shrill no on the other end He glared at Nick "You’re so lucky you’re an only child"