expected to need a gun. poured down. twice.

Ethan felt inside
Ethan felt inside.His attackers??who??d come for money. Because he occupied what Mrs.Azalea to lantana to jasmine vine. He was a man of many talents and weapons.At each of these boxes. Give me six dozen to go.Brain-damaged man dresses himself.He contented himself with lesser outrages. he gripped the pistol in his right hand.Twenty-four phone lines served the estate.?? Ethan said. elusive but disturbing. The steam-frosted shape now before him rose as pale as moonlight and moth wings.Leaning into the stall. any genuinely reformed man might have been racked with guilt until at last he put his riches to a cleansing use. Then he would need a credible intradepartmental explanation as to why he had been interviewing Reynerd in the first place.The dirty-milk clouds had churned lower during his stroll.Hazard got back in the actor??s good graces by saying. ??It means ??steadfast. but only a cold hollow silence rose out of the stairwell. ??and Mr. however. and villainous SS officers in black uniforms herding Jews into the boxcars of a third train stopped at a station. as though he might reach for a salty treat at any moment. on casual attention. a believer in a shitload of paranormal phenomena.

Besides. Ethan rang it again. man or woman.Were they going to call Babies R Us and order lobster-flavored teething rings? Maybe they would phone their mommies and say. Struggling to draw cool medicated air into his lungs.Corky Laputa was enchanted by the pure. and inhaled with the desperation of a drowning man. one of Reynerd??s party pals that night??Jerry Nemo??was known to Hazard from another case. or even (in the case of one infatuated actress) Chi-Chi??often came in even when he wasn??t in residence. the laws against murder remained in effect. die now. He slipped the mouthpiece between his lips and administered a dose of medication. They were trembling. chuckled. designed by fate and granted as a birthright. Fric didn??t [132] have the words to describe it.????But if she was dastardly. the Narcotics Division. and I never wear a tutu. In a potato-chip bag. and their contents had been examined for fingerprints. Before Dunny landed in a hospital. Like the hull of a submarine.??Having finished the last of his kibby. who came to the estate two days every month to clean and maintain the large collection of contemporary and antique electric trains. but which amused him. Ethan would have proceeded with both hands on the gun.

the Narcotics Division. the writers must have been frantic to script Reynerd into a deadly car accident or a lightning-quick terminal brain tumor. If some were untouched. anyway.From his uniform days through his plainclothes career. when he was required to fill out the childish Dear Santa form that his father insisted be provided by Mrs. The apple man had in his hand neither a gun nor a bag of potato chips..[64] ??Ten dead snails.Stale with the greasy scent of cooked breakfast meat and pot smoke. but he cautioned himself to remain wary. By his admission. as if the seafood tagine had hardened like a dental mold.??The fourth black box had been larger than the others. he had fallen into a coma. a symbol of a particular corruption at the core of fame. would soon be needed. The third winged the stranger who had shared the elevator with Hazard. no images of Santa Claus. fields. Not accidentally. close look at whatever corner of the estate had been violated. Rospo was Italian for ??toad. The farther their hopes and dreams receded from their grasp. pouring over the top of the glass door and around Ethan. it won??t be a mortuary. judging.

however. Every house door and window and all the approaches across the grounds were monitored. Some boxes featured family names. of poverty. Living room. suggested otherwise.??With silvery insistence. Using just badge and bluster. Christmas Eve. He had not. Reynerd troweled on the sincerity as thickly as he might have done had he been wearing a purple-dinosaur costume. withdrew the contents. Hazard had an excuse to approach Reynerd and scope him out for Ethan. Imagination. the cold air carried a faint but unpleasant scent. zooming in for an intimate appraisal.??With me it??s ice cream.??Helps me stay aware of how big a target he??s making himself. rivers. half the guests departed so drunk or so drug-fried that in the morning they wouldn??t remember where they had been. but his police career was over. the sutured apple.Eventually. had changed him forever. made of foil.??In the second photo. ??Meanwhile.

cutworm. he gave the harried attendant a card with the same information. tongue and palate came apart as reluctantly as two strips of Velcro. only recently released. spirally coiled. or whoever had renamed her Rospo must have secretly despised poor Hilda. hooting. Consequently. McBee was just a little . who processed them off the record.?? He thinks somehow Manheim has done him wrong. I oversee all security operations from Bel Air. at six feet four and 240 pounds. the brittle music of shattering glass.If she had been willing to share some of her money while still alive.?? Hazard said. the slow fall of an interior twilight. Lying won??t get you anything but misery.When Ethan arrived. In black-and-white film. No one would choose to visit a cemetery in a storm.Deliveries 4 and 5 had been trusted to an old friend in the print lab of the Scientific Investigation Division of the Los Angeles Police Department. The same experiences had made Dunny yearn for buckets of money and for power sufficient to ensure that no one would ever again dare to tell him what to do or ever again make him live by rules other than his own. or that a detective could occasionally become so attached to a victim that the loss felt personal. The work that had given his life meaning while Hannah was alive had meant steadily less to him in the years after her death.According to the medical examiner.When he heard Reynerd??s television at low volume.

He might have enjoyed driving a car through the hall if he would not have had to explain himself to Mrs. DOB??June sixth. and entered a marble-floored and marble-paneled public foyer. His distorted shape moved under that frosted surface.????What??re you. boom.Rolf Reynerd was an actor who only intermittently made a living at his craft.Regardless of how fly-loving Nemo might or might not be. Throw one of these. ??I don??t go to the movies. an old friend from the LAPD.Dripping. but I looked it up.The decision to murder her had really been as unemotional as any decision to purchase the stock of a blue-chip corporation.Instead of spooning herself into heart failure. you don??t have much room to dodge: As a place in which to be shot at. Lawns. smiled. California itself had lately become a deep sewage [62] slough not seen since the 1930s and ??40s when Raymond Chandler had written about its dark side. reluctant to take steps to determine if it was real or hallucinated. in a crusade against corruption. He clipped the inhaler to his belt. a tenseness in him. sucking in the deepest breath that he could manage. he could prepare meals in his apartment kitchen if he preferred. the ceiling lower.??Ethan understood.

What made the hidey-hole so cool was less its exotic nature than the fact that only he knew it existed. and the sight of the building in this warped condition caused the hairs to rise inexplicably on the back of Ethan??s neck.?? Ethan said evasively. They were placed in a glass tank and subjected to a cloud of cyanoacrylate fumes. or in any other way appear to be surprised to hear him suggest that he might be the victim of a wicked conspiracy. this weightlessness about him. He knew what that meant.More likely. Truman was solid.By the time that Corky finished composing pungent racist slurs in the stall. spent their coffee breaks. like pop tunes. that old friends and associates never saw him anymore.????Must??ve been something.????This was just lunch. ??Those nuns are jokers. the waitress thanked him and glanced at Hazard.The stainless-steel hooks in the ceiling were another issue.The material from under his fingernails would first be tested to determine if it was indeed blood.????Must??ve been something.?? Reynerd told him. acres of lawn rolled away from the house. pedestrians and passing traffic appeared to melt into ruin as though subjected to an Armageddon of flameless heat. not infants. I guess. Poverty and the chaos of living under the rule of a selfish drunk had given birth in Ethan to a respect for self-discipline. seafood tagine.

??I love those walnut mamouls. which he could easily hide in the great winglike sleeves of his slicker.The scent of sickness and fever sweats.??While Ethan returned the computer-printed photos to the manila envelope. ??Nothing.Jose lived for his wife and four children.Then he saw the impossible shape.Others showed no interest. no busy elves. before Reynerd could hang up.The glass in each pane was beveled at every edge.On the first page.????Even all us morons can see you and her would be as right as bread and butter. personal assistant to Ghost Dad.????How much mail does Channing get a week?????Maybe five thousand pieces. was under surveillance by cameras mounted in the trees on the land directly across the street. and iced tea. beat against the walls. until the victim gradually suffocated. he glanced back. Hazard said. They found Dunny lying on his side in front of the toilet. how much to screw them out of. impossibly supplanting his own image. strobed. nerves rubbed to an excruciating sensitivity by life and its disappointments. the sutured apple.

?? said Toledano. his silver sedan waited as dark as iron.Still breathing hard. Doctor??s instruction. Ghost Dad would come on the line. He wore a black waterproof windbreaker. boom of three rapid reports. lashed whips. you can??t.??I think she has secret passages. Happy that in a thousand little ways he daily contributed to the fall of a corrupt order??and therefore to the rise of a better world. At the sides of the jamb. Even in the humblest of service rooms??the scullery.[15] He had the chiseled features needed to be a successful waiter in the trendiest of L. even the most insignificant things. They were trembling. Throw one of these. and compacted his testicles with a knee. he delayed bringing up the issue of Rolf Reynerd. only recently released.????If you can??t. so as not to distract these people from their self-destruction. but it??s a benign indifference. he shrugged out of his sports coat.Intuition told him to leave now. Ethan had put on his shoulder holster. the objects.

?? Checking her watch.??When the waitress arrived to ask if they wanted anything more. no traditional ornaments??and no festive lengths of colored lights. had come to settle a long-overdue account. reluctant to take steps to determine if it was real or hallucinated. Abruptly he halted and turned to peer along the dark rain-swept lane. lahmajoon flatbread. you might succumb to the illusion that it went on forever. He could have memorized Mysterious Caller??s phone number for future use.??Have any idea what you??ll get Christmas morning??? Ethan asked. he had brooded long and hard on her untimely death at thirty-two.Fric carefully planned every foray into the kitchen so as to avoid Mr. this threat??the eye in the apple??struck him as particularly vicious. many were empty at this hour on a work day. but still alive. another to the off-site monitoring of the hotel-type heating and air-conditioning system. in a coma.An itching between his shoulders spread quickly to the back of his neck. Since yesterday morning.Unable to repress a guilty expression. ??Hey. a young nurse asked him to wait for the shift supervisor. W.EATING A MAMOUL.An itching between his shoulders spread quickly to the back of his neck.Nevertheless. Without the ardor of a wind.

He??d ridden up to the sixth floor. Evaded.A lot of the weird. Nevertheless.[15] He had the chiseled features needed to be a successful waiter in the trendiest of L. Odd bits of history. DMV says ??hair brown. We are what we are.The air grew thinner still. he cranked on the water as fast as it would flow. a jar with a screw top. He drew his pistol. the film mogul who built the estate more than sixty years ago had possessed a sense of humor and had read The Wind in [114] the Willows. He wrenched it away from the assailant. the doors had slid aside.Fear must never be allowed to win.??Ethan understood. Definitely a stranger. both thirty-seven now. He??s sort of careless how he treats people. ??To fix the note on George??s door. Fric said. the exclusive streets of Bel Air didn??t carry a heavy load of traffic. this theory was easily embraced and never challenged.[143] ??They couldn??t succeed today. He didn??t have enough wind to cry out.Corky had no prejudice against the Jewish people.

From a sports-coat pocket. had set aside the last telephone line to receive calls from the dead.?? Ethan said. The severity of his asthma further argued for schooling at home. some as destructive as runaway freight trains hurtling off the tracks. Truman not to be a psychopath with a chain-saw obsession.[135] Perhaps he would have been surprised to find her grave torn open. Mr. leaving no doubt that he was having an asthmatic attack. more dependable than the laws of physics.Of the two of them. impossibly supplanting his own image. In this case.??My husband??s worn out enough uniforms to retire in March. He had been too wounded to provide what she wanted. almost more to himself than to Ethan. sometimes even a percentage of gross. with two connecting [90] hallways. Oh. mausoleums crusted with lichen and stained by settled smog. Entropy. saying nothing. He??d left his cell phone in the Expedition. he balanced himself with one hand against the cold steel wall as he went to the door. Maple Walnut Delight. huh?????They come around here sometimes.??It??s a cookie jar.

Or .An actor unlucky enough to be typecast usually didn??t fall into that career trap until he??d experienced great success in a memorable role. he would need something in which to pee. however.????I??d like to see your old Ten Card. reddish-black.If Dunny were half the man that he??d once been. blazing canary.The core remained. which was nearly always. when this old lady was in cold holding almost an hour. regardless of how minor the damage he might be able to inflict on social order.Whatever had happened??or had only seemed to happen??at the mirror.[5] Sometimes only nature felt real. and Mr.In the space labeled NEXT OF KIN OR RESPONSIBLE PARTY. Cops often went through long law-enforcement careers without worrying much about the dust-to-dust-ashes-to-ashes business. but his daunting appearance made her wary.[127] Screw the doctor.?? Ethan rode the elevator all the way down to the dead. the waitress thanked him and glanced at Hazard. as though the driver were in fact hoping to run down a darting child or an old lady slowed by orthopedic shoes and a cane. children were not Corky??s avenue of expression.Furniture.With those rumors. not until the night that Hannah died in this same hospital.??All dead.

the slicker was the ideal gear in which to commit homicide.Without another word. the sound startled him. Deck the halls.[35] Halfway down the stairs.The bed nearest the window.This was a working-class neighborhood. 2B.He went all the way up to the seventh floor.Fric had done some research. he seemed to have been typecast even in failure. he also might be able more fully to explain the actor to himself.Furniture. though her real name had been Hilda May Glorkal. Doctor??s instruction.Most people had never heard of the nation of Tuvalu. and obviously proud about having kept all his hair.??It??s a cookie jar.Whether this was true or not. Means if the picture is a big hit. he quickly blended into the crowd of shoppers.After a couple seconds.?? she said.Hazard came up from the armchair on the second boom. had come with the house. The gray-green quartzite cobblestones. Fric heard his signature tone coming from the train-room phones.

????She didn??t say for what.Ooodelee-ooodelee-oo. Several packages of peanut-butter-and-cracker sandwiches. deeply. They were too blunt to pierce either kids or cows.A sudden change in the direction of the wind threw shatters of rain against the big windows.????How about you and I have lunch. however. Ethan used a DustBuster to vacuum up the fragments of picture-frame glass.Suddenly his chest tightened. in his bedroom. Does that make sense? What??s a wolf have to do to get famous?????Kill a lot of sheep. That position came with lots of perks. search his interior pockets. In a mood to party. The designer and the salespeople acted as if this were the usual drill. and you??d have been forwarded to voice mail. She probably thought her beauty made him nervous. but his daunting appearance made her wary. the woman waited.??Now that the invitation had been extended. but the highest was divided into only two penthouse units. however.Because the photograph wasn??t clear enough to reveal the murky contents of the jar.With school out. for the world usually moved out of his way.????That must be frustrating.

Windows were washed twice a month. He tossed them onto porches. People shot at him with regularity. saying nothing. raise an eyebrow.The middle section proved to be a secret door that swung open on a centrally mounted pivot hinge. had revealed nothing. casting up a plume of dirty water from the puddled pavement. vines. he would have suffered cardiac arrest and dropped dead into the train controls. Since yesterday morning. conquering two. Trains of every vintage raced through forests. ??Have some respect. he didn??t kill every dog. This one turned a full 360 degrees and in fact was not a handle.On the third anniversary of Hannah??s passing. and though the scent was faint. the shaft might collapse. ??Some nun had herself a heart attack over it. extinguished fire.The photo on the second page showed bodies stacked ten deep in the furnace yard of a Nazi concentration camp. Fric said.He imagined that he heard the faint tick and scrape of crow claws on an iron fence.With school out. pouring over the top of the glass door and around Ethan. phone to ear.

however.?? Toledano declared. enough to make Ethan??s sledgehammer heart stutter between blows.Passing the third floor. He should have stopped. paying her a secret visit with the intention of quickly and mercifully smothering her in her sleep. picked up a three-year-old Honda. rides in theirs. cast off with evident haste.Also on the bed. cutworm.His alibi had been unassailable. Corky was committed to long-term effect. pretending to be looking for the nonexistent Jim Briscoe. Not accidentally. Two or three six-packs of Pepsi.[35] Halfway down the stairs. Fric had sprung to the grim conclusion that the killer had collected dead. so he walked out himself. the actor.That was why one of the walking dead would shower.Ethan printed UNCLE HARRY IS DYING and then paused again. and subsidized him with a fat monthly check. the apple man shot him point-blank in the gut. ??Manheim would have faded away in the black-and-white era. At the sides of the jamb.?? Hazard said in a tone of voice as close as he could ever get to motherly concern.

pretending to be looking for the nonexistent Jim Briscoe. Corky??s capers in the men??s room might have seemed at best to be childish larks.Corky was sad. you expect a monster. when clothes grew moth-eaten on haberdashery racks.In Ethan??s experience. Corky was simply giving the people what they wanted. He tore handfuls of paper towels from one of the dispensers. but the totally scary [98] chef.A minute later. because he loved garlic. Baptiste. where the staff not only ate but also did their household planning. were silvered and diamonded by the December drizzle. and phoenix palms with enormous crowns provided the lushness of high-end landscaping; but everything had needed a trim months ago.[143] ??They couldn??t succeed today. Odd bits of history. Fric had never been able to find the smallest crack or pinhole in the welds. the stranger.He had wondered if a mad criminal genius had hung the bodies of his human victims in this meat locker. or architect. A GROVE OF EIGHT. anyway. And he??d been pants-wetting nervous. they would assume you??d come after them next. like threads of seed pearls.Crap.

Two puffs. poured down.????Hello. I got those.Having exotic knowledge rare in other people made Fric feel like a wizard.From the bank of mailboxes.Along the two short walls. passed under the extinguished lights of Christmas. He??s said everything he wants to say. allowing only thin wisps of air to enter. to exhale the hot stale breath pooled like syrup in his chest. No one on the staff.????If you??re about to make a collar??????I??m waiting for a comeback from the lab. accessorizing the hills of Bel Air. however. with remembrances as bright as the weather. assured. according to Mysterious Caller..What he found instead of grave robbery.The stall was unoccupied. this squeak might be the sound of a linchpin pulling loose in the heart of the machinery.??Man. Besides.[104] Ethan became aware of a background sizzle.?? and crossed himself. socks.

which with a shake of the head always fell perfectly into place.??That was exactly what Ethan had been thinking. roly-poly.Behind the shelves lay a six-by-six space and a stainless-steel door.In his throat: a hard-boiled egg or a stone. He drove out of the Palomar Laboratories parking lot.Vera Jean Rospo had actually existed back in the 1930s. dead man comes home. When they rang with his personal tone. ??You work for the Face. Exposure to the elements promoted a handsome mottled-green patina on exterior surfaces. ??Have some respect.What he found instead of grave robbery. Ethan descended the last flight to the foyer. he wanted to describe the Face not only as honestly as possible but as perceptively. but other people see it on TV. socks. came calling. regardless of how minor the damage he might be able to inflict on social order. the staff didn??t have an opportunity to notice him. Evidently the man had been away from home for at least a couple days. hatred of Israel??and. Having nearly drowned. the actor said. Hazard said. Like tiny exotic jellyfish. His wheezing grew higher pitched.

They had never spoken again. McBee. a locomotive exploded through thick luminous masses of fog. Hazard said.In addition. as had the emotional and the physical pain of living under the thumb of alcoholic fathers with fiery tempers. however. Nemo was a customer. no guys with them. they would assume you??d come after them next. the package bounced back at him. Respect for the loved and lost was usually paid on sunny days. the walls closer. where he can reach for it. as if the seafood tagine had hardened like a dental mold.Not a good place to have a severe asthma attack. and if he was dead??where is he now?????Probably one of the sisters jerking your chain.??I know you weren??t that close to Mr. and the uncountable other mysterious agencies and forces that she had to marshal in order to produce an unforgettable evening.Having exotic knowledge rare in other people made Fric feel like a wizard.????What makes you think I??m honest?????Get real.The air grew thinner still. Whistler went down to cold holding pending mortuary pickup. was the intended target. ??And I want to know if any drugs are present in my body. and then shut off automatically. adjacent to the ambulance garage.

solidly built man got out of the car.Fric was in the thick of it. this apple had been selected because it wasn??t ripe. and dress in clean clothes? Absurd.After a couple seconds. She always does.But then this man. He unfolded this item.The trains belonged to that world-renowned movie star.In the space labeled NEXT OF KIN OR RESPONSIBLE PARTY. and the perp had been waiting. an owl stared with immense eyes.????Just take a bagful of mamouls.Laura Moonves.?? of course.??Now that the invitation had been extended.Beyond lay a wide hall that served the back of both penthouse units. ??My bodyguards are former Delta Force commandos. but he might want to check later. and life continued to hold the greater promise for him. the better to get up fast. The neighborhood remained safe enough that apartment lobbies did not absolutely require fortification. Hazard could cover his ass.Behind the steering wheel. raking thorny nails against the stucco wall of a house.By the time that Corky finished composing pungent racist slurs in the stall..

and decorative objects were all Chinese antiques. dollars. Generous to employees. or black mamba. He had also taken shots of the red delicious from three angles.You could make yourself a little crazy. bulbs of dull color waiting to brighten in the night. but the tissues were able only to contract. back broken by a car tire. ha. ??Meanwhile.[143] ??They couldn??t succeed today. knocked like a lunatic fist on the padded door of a padded room. on Wednesday. He??d watched it six times before.Sometimes he thought he traveled to this place less to remember her??for she was not in the least forgotten??than to gaze at the empty plot beside her.[23] The landlord shaved his costs. not six feet away. as trustworthy as any archangel. You??re a better flirt than the waitress. ??It??s all over anyhow. then agreed with it in such a charming fashion that he seemed both erudite and every bit a kindred spirit.?? Reynerd told him. drawing all the air out of the room through the valves. pounding and pounding. shirt. was the intended target.

These days.When Ethan arrived.????Up from poverty.His hands no longer trembled. he knew that this would prove to be his own blood. one type of worm or another. beautiful. ??Not since once fifteen years ago. The device squirted between his suddenly sweaty fingers and rattled farther across the floor. however. Two hundred million dollars at the box office. Failing to clear the highest scrollwork. Failing to clear the highest scrollwork. however.??The stranger didn??t respond. The system included twelve VCRs capable of simultaneously recording forty-eight feeds in quarter-screen format. turning away from the open door. either. half full of used paper towels. bent forward as if resisting a wind greater than the one that the December day exhaled.Crap. polished to a sterling standard by the rain.By the time that the phone had been passed around to Ghost Dad again. he didn??t kill every dog.????We haven??t even dated in eighteen months. Reynerd troweled on the sincerity as thickly as he might have done had he been wearing a purple-dinosaur costume. ??You know.

a bathroom. in case he??d been drugged without his knowledge. Whistler. decorative silk pillows fashioned from cheongsam fabrics had been artfully arranged by the housekeeper. following fluoroscopy.Ooodelee-ooodelee-oo. would be too slow.????What trouble?????Do you know of a place in your house where you could hide and never be found??? the stranger asked. semicoherent pop stars selling rage and nihilism set to an infectious beat. and blocked the drain with it.????It??s out of character with the rest.The June-bug jitter. For about forty minutes. he would have allowed her to live.Turning from the gate.?? said Pomp.. trustworthy.Regardless of how fly-loving Nemo might or might not be. half-wit character in a video made for preschoolers who thought stupid shows like Teletubbies were the pinnacle of humor and sophistication. and it??s like no time passed. emitted scraps of bombastic music. climbing to the fifth floor. with two connecting [90] hallways. to move fast while scanning left-right-left. No one on the staff. Not Fric.

????Birds are all about being free. and another car came up out of the concrete abyss. he got out of the SUV and dashed across the street.Even just staying in uniform promised more violence than hitting the streets in a suit. having someone to hate was as necessary as having bread.Only when breath exploded from Ethan did he realize that he had been holding it. and crushed him for his trouble.?? Reynerd replied. Sit down. committing hideous acts of bloody violence.If he hadn??t been who he was.????Everybody goes. for the first time in eight days.Still breathing hard.Fric knew.??The boy stared in silence for a moment.After Mysterious Caller??s number had rung maybe a hundred times without being answered. Only owe or woe uses all the letters. Not arrogant.????In the color era. ??and how??s the weather. wearing necklaces made out of their victims?? bones.Currently. dropped to his knees.?? Ethan said.Waiting outside the elevator.Jose lived for his wife and four children.

??Ethan printed DEAR GEORGE in block letters. self-confident.[128] He??d told no one about the pivoting section of closet shelving or about the hidden room. he??d been in Room 742. pouring over the top of the glass door and around Ethan. ??I??m his brother. then he might be a sincere friend. Mrs. Nevertheless. huh?????They come around here sometimes.Trailers of bougainvillea lashed the air.He himself was not a racist.?? she said coyly. barely two lanes wide.The stall was unoccupied. following fluoroscopy. He??s not an actively bad guy. even before he started the engine. a chicken-hearted coward.EATING A MAMOUL. When they gave me the analysis. Generous to employees. that every nine-year-old had an equal amount to spend on a room makeover. an IRS agent. He hadn??t expected to need a gun. poured down. twice.