Eye of the Beholder

her on the phone. I'm going to run out to her house and see if she's okay."
    "No problem," Kerry said. "I'm at my best when I'm swamped with customers. And when I know that my day off is coming."
    Alexa glanced at the clock. "I should be back by four at the latest."
    "I'll be fine. Hope Joanna's okay."
    "I'm sure she is. See you in an hour or so."
    Alexa collected her satchel, walked through her cluttered stock room, and went out the rear door into the alley.
    In the parking lot she found her Camry, opened the door, and removed the reflective sun shield from the inside of the front window.
    She had been invited to Joanna's house in the hills on several occasions. The trip took less than twenty minutes. She spent the entire time telling herself to calm down, that nothing was wrong, that Joanna was just feeling a little blue because Guthrie's accident had brought back sad memories.
    But as she drove the winding road up into the hills above Avalon her unease sharpened with every mile. Maybe she should have come out here earlier.
    Joanna's home had been designed by the same architect responsible for the Dimensions Institute. It was all sleek angles and planes of glass. From its isolated hillside perch it commanded a sweeping view of the town and the rust-red landscape beyond. There were no close neighbors. Joanna had always treasured her privacy.
    The first thing Alexa saw when she pulled into the drive was a Lexus. That answered one question, at any rate. Joanna was home.
    She got out of the Camry, walked across the wide deck to the front door, and rang the bell.
    When she did not get an answer, she pounded loudly on the wooden panels.
    "Joanna, it's me, Alexa. Please open the door. I'm worried about you."
    She waited for a response. The desert silence closed in around the house. When it became clear that Joanna was not going to respond, she walked around to the kitchen windows and peered inside.
    Joanna lay crumpled on the tile floor. The folds of a turquoise blue terry cloth robe swirled around her. A bottle of pills sat on the counter. An empty mug and a small package of tea bearing the Cafe Solstice label sat next to it. Joanna had evidently found some of her special blend in her cupboard, after all.
    "Joanna."
    Alexa rushed to the kitchen door. It was locked.
    For a few seconds she thought wildly about smashing a window. Then she remembered that this was the same Joanna who hid her spare shop key beneath a flower pot outside the door of Crystal Rainbow.
    She glanced around. Sure enough, there was a large flowering cactus cradled in a heavy terra cotta pot near the door.
    She found the key beneath the pot, shoved it into the lock, and twisted the knob.
    The sulfurous, rotten-egg smell of gas wafted through the opening. She recalled Joanna telling her that she'd installed a gas tank when she'd put in a new range. The gas company had not yet run any lines out to this sparsely populated neighborhood.
    "Dear God. Joanna."
    She threw the door open, took a deep breath of fresh air, and dashed inside. How much gas did it take to create a danger of explosion? she wondered. She knew very little about the hazards of a gas leak. Her own home was all electric.
    She seized Joanna by the ankles and heaved with all of her strength. Joanna wasn't much heavier than Dancing Satyr. Alexa got her out into the fresh air on the deck.
    "Joanna, please don't be dead."
    Frantically she searched for a pulse and felt lightheaded with relief when she found a weak one.
    "Joanna, can you hear me? Talk to me. What happened? Did you fall?"
    Joanna groaned. Her hand twitched, but her eyes did not open. "Don't let them get me. Please. Help me. "
    The panic in Joanna's slurred voice sent another jolt of fear through Alexa. "Don't move. I'm going to call for help." She looked around for the satchel she had dropped a moment earlier, found it, and retrieved her cell phone.
    "Alexa?" Joanna's lashes fluttered. "What're you doing here?"
    "It's okay." Alexa stabbed the emergency number. "Help is on the way."
    "Too late." Joanna gave up the attempt to open her eyes. "Too late. The monsters."
    The 911 operator was rattling off a string of questions in Alexa's ear. She tried to concentrate on answering them.
    "No, I don't know what happened." Alexa glanced back into the kitchen. "There's gas inside the house. We're outside. I've got the door open now. I see a bottle of pills."
    "Any idea what kind of drugs?"
    "Prescription stuff. Tranquilizers, I think. She