Carol wasn't hungry. She fed Sultan and made herself another drink, her third … or was it her fourth? It hardly mattered, she decided, the liquor's effects causing a warm, buoyant feeling to glow inside her, a pleasurable diversion she had almost forgotten existed. It had been a very eventful day, she thought, reviewing individually once more all the things that had happened, as she sipped her gin and tonic. For a change, there'd been a few happy things! She smiled down at the big German shepherd resting at her feet, a stimulated little tingle rippling in her belly when she remembered the lewd hour they'd spent together. Then, Mark Cannon came excitedly to mind, adding to those provocative stirrings …

Suddenly the door buzzer sounded. For a moment, Carol hesitated as Sultan's throaty growl gave warning, mental reflections of Ed White racing through her mind. Again the buzzer sounded, and with a staccato urgency this time that she couldn't ignore. Carol set down her drink and answered it with her dog close beside her.

It was Peg White and she was crying, her face flushed and crumbled, one cheek noticably redder than the other. Clutched against her breast she held a purse, and a sob choked from her throat as she charged into the room!

«Close the door and lock it, please, Carol! Hurry, before he knows where I've gone!» Peggy White gasped in a terrified voice … locking the door herself when the blonde girl didn't react quick enough. «If he finds me, he'll kill me! I-I just know it! I've never seen him so raving drunk!»

Without asking, Carol knew that the almost hysterical girl was referring to her husband. «Wh-Where is he now?» she quickly questioned hoping to God he hadn't seen his wife come in there.

«I-In the apartment, still looking for this, I suppose!» Peggy whispered in a shaking voice holding up her purse. «I-I keep the rent money in here for the bank deposit. It's not ours, you know … we have no right to use it, but that makes damned little difference to Ed! It's money … and that's all he cares! Money to throw around in bars … and to buy those slutty teenage bitches …!»