Mr. Murder

Sisters with brothers, sisters with sisters. He sat for hours, until almost dawn, transfixed.
        Absorbing.
        Learning, learning.
        To have become a United States Senator, an exalted leader, the dead man in the bathtub must have been extremely wise. Therefore, his personal film library would, of course, contain diverse material of a transcendent nature, reflecting his singular intellectual and moral insights, embodying philosophies far too complex to be within the grasp of the average film-goer at a public theater. How very fortunate to have discovered the politician lounging in the media room rather than preparing a snack in the kitchen or reading a book in bed.
        Otherwise, this opportunity to share the wisdom in the great man's hidden vault would never have arisen.
        Now, curled fetally on the back seat of the Buick, he may be temporarily blinded in one eye, bullet-creased and bullet-pierced, weak and weary, defeated for the moment, but he is not despairing.
        He has another advantage in addition to his magically resilient body,.'..,. unparalleled stamina, and exhaustive knowledge of the killing arts.
        Equally important, he possesses what he perceives to be great wisdom, acquired from movie screens both public and private, and that wisdom will ensure his ultimate triumph. He knows what he believes to be the great secrets that the wisest people hide in concealed vaults, those things which women really need but which they may not know they subconsciously desire, those things which children want but of which they dare not speak. He understands that his wife and children will welcome and thrive upon utter domination, harsh discipline, physical abuse, sexual subjugation, even humiliation. At first opportunity, he intends to fulfill their deepest and most primitive longings, as the lenient false father apparently will never be able to do, and together they will be a family, living in harmony and love, sharing a destiny, held together forever by his singular wisdom, strength, and demanding heart.
        He drifts toward healing sleep, confident of waking with full health and vigor in several hours.
        A few feet from him, in the trunk of the car, lies the dead man who once owned the Buick-cold, stiff, and without any appealing prospects of his own.

How good it is to be special, to be needed, to have a destiny.
    Still we're at the point where hope and reason part, lies the spot where madness gets a start.
    Hope to make the world kinder and free but flowers of hope root in reality.
    No peaceful bed exists for lamb and lion, unless on some world out beyond Orion.
    Do not instruct the owls to spare the mice.
    Owls acting as owls must is not a vice.
    Storms do not respond to heartfelt pleas.
    All the words of men can't calm the seas.
    Nature-always beneficent o.nd cruel wont change for a wise man or a fool.
    Mankind shares all Nature's imperfections, clearly visible to casual inspections.
    Resisting betterment is the human trait.
    The ideal of utopia is our tragic fate.
        
    - The Book of Counted Sorrows
        
        We sense that life is a dark comedy and maybe we can live with that.
        However, because the whole thing is written for the entertainment of the gods, too many of the jokes go right over our heads.
        Two Vanished Victims, Martn Stillwater Immediately after leaving the roadside rest area where the dead retirees relaxed forever in the cozy dining nook of their motorhome, heading back along I-40 toward Oklahoma City with the inscrutable Karl Clocker behind the wheel, Drew Oslett used his state-of-the-art cellular phone to call the home office in New York City. He reported developments and requested instructions.
        The telephone he used wasn't yet for sale to the general public.
        To the average citizen, it would never be available with all of the features that Oslett's model offered.
        It plugged into the cigarette lighter like other cellulars, however, unlike others, it was operable virtually anywhere in the world, not solely within the state or service area in which it was issued.
        Like the SATU electronic map, the phone incorporated a direct satellite up link. It could directly access at least ninety percent of the communications satellites currently in orbit, bypassing their land-based control stations, override security-exclusion programs, and connect with any telephone the user wished, leaving