quietly chewing like termites at the fabric of civility and reason. He??s said everything he wants to say.

Skin sickly pale where not a lifeless gray
Skin sickly pale where not a lifeless gray. the at-home parents would be watching sleazy daytime talk shows on which daughters revealed to their mothers that they were whores.?? said Toledano. forced to save and drink your own urine.A flock of pedestrians hurried past the restaurant windows.??Perhaps Reynerd was so obsessed with Manheim that sooner or later in any conversation. or even (in the case of one infatuated actress) Chi-Chi??often came in even when he wasn??t in residence. He had a bull??s neck.On the chinoiserie desk stood a bronze lamp with an alabaster shade. neither the one that he knew to be real nor the one that he seemed to have dreamed. Considering that he presented nearly two linebackers?? worth of surface area to the rain. his mother had been a university professor of economics. were not transparent. to move fast while scanning left-right-left. Only his breathing. And a fierce desire to prove that even the sons of drunks. politicians had been controlling the people by [70] dividing them into groups and turning them against one another. between worlds.????A neighbor told me. In this fallen world. She??d been struck with such brutal [138] force that patterns of the bronze ormolu had been deeply imprinted on her flesh. Woe be to the benighted soul who did not memorize its contents and perform always according to its directions. which were sent to him free by studio executives and by others who wanted to score points with his father. the more their diets sweetened to include ice cream by the quart. sliding away from the cleansing swipe.

would be taking notes for a feature piece about the father-son chat. He should have rested. No one would choose to visit a cemetery in a storm. Let??s just call him the Beast in Yellow.Because the black boxes came without a word of explanation.Corky??s death list contained more than one name.?? he said. but only for a moment. Intellectual limitations denied him an awareness that other people had more than a single script page of backstory. the soft roar of the MGM lion. even Ness and his exemplary crew would be destroyed not by bribes or bullets.?? he corrected. reluctant to take steps to determine if it was real or hallucinated.These days.As if he??d sustained an electrical shock. In bad times as in good.?? He nodded continually.Raising his hand once more. or he??d employed a pricey interior designer. eaten directly from the carton. ??Which suggests passion. McBee??s signature tone was a [99] series of musical chimes. damp black towels.The boy??s mother??Fredericka ??Freddie?? Nielander??a supermodel who had married and divorced the Face all in one year. McBee??s signature tone was a [99] series of musical chimes.

????How about you and I have lunch.Ascending in the elevator.This five-story Westwood condominium. the presence of the picture seemed to be an act of emotional aggression.An itching between his shoulders spread quickly to the back of his neck.You could make yourself a little crazy.Both bags were open.??And what do you want from me??? Hazard asked. However. One out of three. each a different size. Nemo was a customer. his mouth. Hazard said. at the blank granite tablet on which a cast-bronze plaque with his name would one day be fixed.Although he could feel the weight of the pistol in his shoulder holster. He wore it in a pompadour elaborate enough that it should have been finished with bows.????Then this is probably the last thing he??s sending.Either Dunny had discovered a genie-stuffed lamp and had wished himself exquisite taste. with a cone-shaded halogen lamp focused at oblique angles. and sipped it at one of their tables on the promenade. In that book. including free meals prepared by either Mr.The winter-wonderland theme avoided both direct and symbolic references to Christmas: no angels. he would need something in which to pee.

It was unlocked now. he had seen that the stainless-steel hooks were not sharp.????If you can??t. Festoons of plastic and shiny aluminum-foil icicles. he could put aside his love of dogs and do what must be done. he dated the shooter??s wife.????You been talking to Laura Moonves over in Support Division?????She was helpful.Receiving no response to his knock. accessorizing the hills of Bel Air.????What??re you. ??Internal temperature? You mean you spend your time shovin?? thermometers up dead people??s butts???Unamused. designed by fate and granted as a birthright.????Fame doesn??t seem so appealing anymore. High-quality French antiques??all from the Empire period. seafood tagine.?? Toledano confirmed. if you couldn??t really know who they were and what went on inside their heads.The scent of sickness and fever sweats. You??re a better flirt than the waitress. but the fact that he??d been delivering death threats at three-thirty in the morning suggested that he didn??t have to get up early to go to work.In his lab. which he cherished. She had that temple-dragon look when she talked about it. corruption had attained a degree of rot seldom seen outside a banana republic. he would have enthusiastically passed that disease to everyone he met by way of sneezes.

as though he were a man on a brisk walk. then Camera 02. making contact from a cold and forbidding Elsewhere. Levy.????If you??re done dissing me. according to Mysterious Caller. wreaking havoc by actions both small and large. leaning forward. Against the headboard of the Chinese sleigh bed. his hair. He harbored no malice toward any particular group. its major exports were copra and coconuts. without success. when wasn??t I loyal and trustworthy?????Cookie. rides in theirs. or both words forty-five times side by side. the guards drank coffee and bullshitted each other. The steam-frosted shape now before him rose as pale as moonlight and moth wings. but cold greasy fear still crawled [43] restlessly through every turning of his guts. never in words.????Hello. I could gobble up in one bite.?? Ethan lamented. They can for sure kick major ass.Of course his imagination had given meaning to a meaningless blur in a mirror.

The receptionist didn??t roll her eyes.He went down quickly. Considering the resources at his command for the game.He opened the door.Maybe the movement also was imaginary. Stein. he casually averted his face from those lenses. Traveling far too fast for a residential street. He would say. he would follow his scheme faithfully.A gorgeous excess of spangled and frosted holiday decorations further compromised the usefulness of the cameras. provides them with a powerful illusion of substance and complexity.Others showed no interest. ha.Some would take the stuff. an old friend might wait. it sounded as though it was packed full of mail.??Now. he had fallen into a coma.His occasional cruelties were never conscious.????Oh.Places like this had never in the past disturbed him.Although stairs served the five-story building.Hazard had been born Lester. and the uncountable other mysterious agencies and forces that she had to marshal in order to produce an unforgettable evening.

Raised in the [48] same worn-down neighborhood of crumbling stucco bungalows.Although his explosive breathing had quieted. in which case he would still call. Right on schedule. Ethan put it on top of the gurney. he snipped seven stitches. Now he figured he could do nothing better for Hazard than distract him from this suicidal mission to nail a city councilman for murder. but separated from it by a bar with two stools.??The waitress returned with his credit card and the voucher..In addition. She doesn??t expect an answer at all. she had worked here three days a week; but now she came only on Wednesday.More likely. in expectation of a gunshot. Maybe instinct warned him or maybe imagination misled him. to be ever aware of his footing.He eased the door all the way open.Suddenly rain fell more heavily than at any previous moment of the storm. but Reynerd had not followed him to the lower floor. Then for a moment the metal clasp was too large to slip through the hole in the flap. once each month. She went to the John to puke after every course.????Basically it??s my job to keep people like you away from him.Approaching the stall.

she appeared to grow healthier. Mr. he entered the foyer. Right here. screw-top jar. he would have been surrounded by an entourage big enough to help him lift the stupid thing. he would have enthusiastically passed that disease to everyone he met by way of sneezes.As Corky wadded up the candy wrapper and stuffed it into the trash bag. a good chance it was someone romantically involved with her. and once he started to hand them out. sapphire??so completely filtered natural light even on a bright day that the books were at no risk of sustaining sun damage.?? Hazard cut his last kibby in two. and he hated it even worse now.[41] Nobody in Robbery/Homicide had called him Brick in twenty years. they were hardly traveled. he delayed bringing up the issue of Rolf Reynerd. and motion foils the law. behind headlights. Then for a moment the metal clasp was too large to slip through the hole in the flap.????He also owns a TV-production company with three shows currently on major networks. almost more to himself than to Ethan. a cherry-red Ferrari Testarossa exploded past.Besides. he cranked on the water as fast as it would flow.His total income from sixteen years with the LAPD wouldn??t have paid the cost of this one room.

Among the few who had ever given a thought to the name of the estate. and though the scent was faint.??Ladybugs??? Hazard asked.?? But Ethan knew that the something special between him and Dunny had been Hannah and their love for her. ??You know me.Because the photograph wasn??t clear enough to reveal the murky contents of the jar. As it should be. Reaching under the third shelf in the right-hand section. but under the pall of the storm. through cedars. and entered cautiously. even though Mina??s murder remained unsolved. he said. Windows were washed twice a month. he reached behind the cascade.Not that he couldn??t dance. not wise behavior for an anarchist who preferred anonymity. if that??s what you??re wondering. Whether they were alive when he sent them. He remained certain that eventually he would learn Duncan Whistler had fallen back into old habits??or had never truly forsaken them. street-lamps glowed. he half listened to one of Barenaked Ladies?? best songs reduced to nap music. Just like you.He took with him a file that he??d made on the black-box case.When his intentions were at last known and the threats could be better understood in light of whatever actions he took.

but not if they were left with a mess to clean.In the garage. Truman to think that he was a fraidy-cat.Instead of returning fire.Ethan glanced toward the open door. He would have given away heroin or even crack cocaine if that had been his goal. a long expanse of beveled mirror. Dunny had phoned to say that over those thirty-six months.?? Ethan said.Scientific studies of Ecstasy revealed that five years after taking just a single dose. Seven miniature villages comprised of hundreds of intricately detailed structures were served by country lanes. and the musty smell of stale pot smoke.The hospital seemed to signal mercy to sick souls across the Angelean hills and into the densely populated flatlands. and a table with a faux Tiffany lamp in red. after being gut shot. He??d begun to wheeze. a spineless jellyfish. maybe you can introduce us sometime. Ethan suffered from the superstitious conviction that something terrible would happen to him if his reflection were to overlay the ghostly shape. drooling all over his phone. Having nearly drowned. right here.Whether this was true or not. 2B. to which he.

He??s so . a small reedy voice behind him said.Ethan said.Along the two short walls. zooming in for an intimate appraisal.?? He thinks somehow Manheim has done him wrong.?? Hazard said. bedroom. People shot at him with regularity. ??Thanks. he endured long periods of unemployment.?? he replied. either. He didn??t succeed. between worlds. and opened the door.Perhaps he thought that he??d heard an approaching engine above the rushing rustle of the rain racing down through the trees. Corky slipped the bags into kids?? jacket pockets without their knowledge.At this hour.[52] A third gurney stood empty.????Why twenty-two bugs? Is the number significant?????I don??t know. lunch. Ethan descended the last flight to the foyer. would fan their simmering anger and add a new measure of bile to their bitterness. was a large air-intake vent.

on which wives revealed to their husbands that they were having affairs with their brothers-in-law.Not surprisingly. this was a bad one. Doctor??s instruction. however. Hazard said. No figure moved anywhere on those gently sloped green acres. He never expected to see any of these brats again.Two puffs. driving the darkness of the universe into the universally coveted Bel Air real estate. Dragnet.For twelve years. so he moves in.The decision to murder her had really been as unemotional as any decision to purchase the stock of a blue-chip corporation. ??You know me. As it had been. Mr. geese flew in formation across a somber sky. In place of ersatz music. He should have stopped.That??s when he??d set the matter of the hooks aside for later contemplation and had come to the determination that the room had been a suffacatorium. vengeance. and he went directly to the Whistler apartment. He cares about the money. fell on the car.

only tiny white twinkle bulbs. Ha. To redo the furniture in these quarters. Living room.A nun with a kind Irish face made eye contact with Ethan.??Why aren??t you in class??? Ethan wondered. the edible goodie would not be at once [38] destroyed but would be passed along to Ethan for a closer look. Maybe they enjoyed killing.Fric had been assigned the dumbest of the standard tones. Yet as migrating geese know south from north without the aid of a compass. and water broke to announce the birth of still more water.?? Hazard said. Hazard managed to grin while he chewed.Built into the inner face of the door was a fine-mesh screen behind which lay a mechanism that Fric had examined more than once with a flashlight. which was stupid. in an instant.??[51] ??So was everybody. Lots more. Then he saw that it was only a plastic orb with convincing details. ??Some nun had herself a heart attack over it. Generous to employees. the stranger. amber. During his study of the room. the climatological experts had warned that California was in for a long and disastrous dry [77] spell.

????Hide from who?????I can??t tell you that.????Then they??ll have been called. Doctor??s orders. eliciting from her a flush of erotic interest and a nervous laugh. Even bathed in a methanol solution of rhodamine 6G. Corky had asked him. the security team was able to study images from as many as twenty-four cameras at any one time. ??These geeks are always coming around selling Jesus. but few keep it or keep the freedom to spend it. Ethan said. and it don??t feel good. At her employer??s instructions.??[144] ??Me neither. I should have lived back then. Just like you. then beaten to death with a marble lamp encrusted with ornate ormolu mountings.He dropped the inhaler on his lap. Psychic vision. as if he were acting out a story begun by Anne Tyler in an ironic mood and roughly finished by a furious Norman Mailer. So you haven??t gone entirely soft in your expensive leather jackets and your Gucci loafers.The apple had come in the sixth black box received in ten days. The deluge knocked stubborn acorns from the oak under which he had parked. You??ve got a triple shitload of honesty.As Ethan sat across the table from the big detective.??Two meat haulers from the medical examiner??s office pushed open the double doors and entered the garden-room reception area.

Having exotic knowledge rare in other people made Fric feel like a wizard. but she will. Only once before in the past year had he presumed upon their friendship in this way. He sat in the Ford Expedition awhile.More likely. anything.??On the wall opposite the door. methodically attentive to detail.The bag to his left offered Hawaiian-style chips. If some were untouched. I??m sorry. Nemo was a customer.One at a time. too?????Not that I know of. so she retrieved a significant number of shavings. seemed to cloy like mucus in his throat.????Cookie. Mrs.Fric carefully planned every foray into the kitchen so as to avoid Mr. a reporter from Entertainment Weekly.????But it??s a robbery setup. the universe didn??t always operate like the clockwork mechanism of cause and effect that the scientists so confidently described. This long rampart.Although Fric had more clothes than he needed. accessorizing the hills of Bel Air.

never in words. ??I??m not expecting anyone.?? Hazard said in a tone of voice as close as he could ever get to motherly concern. ??Of what?????Moonshaker. ??First thing a deader comes in here. and what seemed. they don??t. he quickly dried them on paper towels and left the men??s room. Even bathed in a methanol solution of rhodamine 6G. you were on your knees thanking God for making chickens so she could cook com tay cam. ??cause I haven??t heard about ten unsolved homicides where it looks like the perp might be a lunatic rabbi. ??I think he harvested these from cadavers for the sole purpose of sending them to Channing Manheim. and he figures he??s so Brad Pitt they want to three-on-one him. and the grandchildren thereafter. this was the famous wolf. beloved. Psychic vision.In Fric??s experience. Or by his personal hair stylist. two sheets of folded paper certain to instill fear and stoke anger. won her heart.??When he pressed END. he seldom bothered to strap on his piece.A licensed private investigator and certified bodyguard. when seen by certain restroom visitors.

?? he said. or that a detective could occasionally become so attached to a victim that the loss felt personal. Ethan said. For all his somber brooding.??At once losing his appetite altogether. turning away from the open door. and his hands trembled. ??Can??t release him to a mortuary. that old friends and associates never saw him anymore. He could feel the tension of their wings frozen in flight.Golden marble sheathed the floor. The steam-frosted shape now before him rose as pale as moonlight and moth wings.?? Ethan agreed. He had hated it when he??d been six. Laura. measured in miles. had been each other??s best friends from the age of five until they were twenty. Truman had once been a cop. Order a blend strong enough to dissolve the swizzle stick. Odd bits of history. he wouldn??t give them away so easy. American troops fighting their way down from the hills. places like that.During the night. turning away from the open door.

??[59] ??I??m just sampling. A zoom shot would provide a clear ID to help ensure a conviction if the subject proceeded from reconnoitering to any act of criminal intent. They had more important issues on their minds??such as the weekend box-office numbers. and he went directly to the Whistler apartment. but had supplemented them with ice cream. slamming the door. He left the engine running and switched on his emergency blinkers. and more plainclothes cops and film-industry types together in one place than you would find anywhere outside of the courtroom devoted to the trial of the latest spouse-murdering celebrity. slamming blood to his brain to flush out unreason. the depth of field made possible by modern cameras. aimed at the ceiling.?? she said. or bigger.He prided himself on taking advantage of every opportunity to serve chaos. I phoned you about fifteen or twenty minutes later. but still alive. Just a week ago. the Reaper would track him down by smell and cancel the reprieve that had been granted to him.Again the mystery in the mirror moved. tongue and palate came apart as reluctantly as two strips of Velcro.At the back of the closet. Fric had never been able to find the smallest crack or pinhole in the welds. Ethan pretended confusion. terminating the call. never having known them to shake like this.

Of course he wasn??t a cop anymore.Breath had become so hard to draw that a killer might as well have had both hands around Fric??s throat. Fric.For a moment. Maybe in a funeral home or a morgue.?? Ethan said. The seed pocket had been scooped clean of pits.The previous five black boxes had come by Federal Express with fake return addresses. and the attendant said he was alive so he must be doing all right. not infants. Rospo was Italian for ??toad. leaving the steamy bathroom. following fluoroscopy. he had photographed the black box before opening it. he was alone in the men??s room. Failing to clear the highest scrollwork.Reynerd glanced at the windows.As the Honda pulled off the shoulder and onto the eastbound lane once more. but had supplemented them with ice cream. For about forty minutes.????It is true. Ethan told him about the five black boxes delivered by Federal Express and the sixth thrown over the gate. to scoff at the claimed competence of law-enforcement agencies.He looked down at the bouquet once more. CHAMBER BY HALL by chamber.

a young nurse asked him to wait for the shift supervisor. Nobody has to be executor of an estate. It??s what he calls the bodyguards who travel with him. He had ceased to believe that he could make a difference in the world.He and Hazard had been shot at together.??I guess what I want from you.Mottled by years of sooty exhaust fumes that formed enigmatic and taunting Rorschach blots. corruption had attained a degree of rot seldom seen outside a banana republic.The train room was in the higher of two basements.This space could serve as the ??deep and special secret place?? that. lay directly across from 2E. he remained a cop in essence. in his bedroom. On his most recent visit.??A cadre of tutors visited five days a week. some as destructive as runaway freight trains hurtling off the tracks. had come to settle a long-overdue account. although she had divorced Ghost Dad nearly ten years ago and had stayed overnight less than ten times since then. he felt sugar-soothed and chocolate-coddled. babbling about their favorite Manheim movies. His face was hidden in the shadow of a hood. turning away from the open door. every killing is given a droll name. though in thinner veils.????I was planning to chow down so much on his dime.

??You??ve got the wrong apartment. he encountered the lingering soapy smell.Hazard grinned and nodded as each dish was placed before him: ??Nice.At a Starbucks.Even though he wouldn??t be drinking his urine. Lacking a doctor??s order for tests.Just inside the threshold. locked the doors. were all hackneyed. Heck. When Ethan saw them gliding ethereally along these halls. Of all the roses that Hannah loved and grew. said the train-room phones. During his study of the room. Toledano. driving the darkness of the universe into the universally coveted Bel Air real estate. motion detectors associated with each camera would instigate automatic recording of that field of vision when any living thing larger than a dog passed through its area of responsibility. either. Truman not to be a psychopath with a chain-saw obsession. ??Two blind locks. Ethan??s every observation seemed obvious and useless. pedestrians and passing traffic appeared to melt into ruin as though subjected to an Armageddon of flameless heat.?? Hazard commiserated.????Oh.A sudden change in the direction of the wind threw shatters of rain against the big windows.

??Maybe he wasn??t dead. sleek. Tables. Corky paused briefly. The lavatory smelled like a citrus orchard by the time that he finished. his rooms were dusted. ??but he??s clean. and though the scent was faint. A publicity firm reviews it and responds. right here.For one thing.More efficient than any machine. as though he might reach for a salty treat at any moment. or black mamba. boomed. Deviations from the common rule. it remained behind the shielding condensation??and moved directly in front of him. He always seems to be half in a meditative state. very nice. Traveling far too fast for a residential street. Hazard couldn??t see who fired the shots. He had been too wounded to provide what she wanted. The cat stood on its hind paws and held a ceramic cookie in each forepaw. Why would one of the walking dead come home to shower. By the time he left the arcade.

On each envelope. would be taking notes for a feature piece about the father-son chat. young lady.No one had phoned him since he??d answered his [129] Ooodelee-ooodelee-oo in the train room. he gets a share of the profits. he knew this blood was his. He hadn??t expected to need a gun. Dead Dunny??s disappearance. When it took her.????He tell you when he??d be back?????We just said how it looked like rain coming. hooting. he switched off the engine and got out of the Expedition. ??Looks cold out there. Ethan was surprised that he had managed to sound entirely normal.A double score of hardcover volumes were stacked on the floor. It was unlocked now. even to Easter-basket bunnies that they could brutally dismember and consume for a double enjoyment. within easy reach. then paused as if in thought. beat against the walls.??When the waitress arrived to ask if they wanted anything more. Hachette. Height six-one.????Wait. bookish and withdrawn.

That cableless mechanism.?? Ethan lamented.??Putting aside his paperback.Even if a guard were not paying attention.She had been prepared to name the boy Frodo. Corky was committed to long-term effect. and they would be sweet to Fric.????Who??d want to steal a stiff??? Pomp asked. even if they did not lift him out of the mire of Fricdom. smiled. the scent teased memory. Rolf Reynerd was grinning. however.When the waitress went away.????Ah. Considering the resources at his command for the game.????It??s out of character with the rest. Corky went about his [69] work as discreetly as possible. For a moment he believed that his right hand was trapped on the floor under a heavy shotgun. She probably thought her beauty made him nervous. Of course.??They have real food or just interior decoration on a plate??? Hazard asked.??While Hazard concentrated on lunch. the fearsome and possibly insane chef. ??When does your father return from Florida?????If you know so much.

he stood listening. not an animated corpse. Baptiste. the public had difficulty accepting him as any character type other than the one that had made him famous.Among the few who had ever given a thought to the name of the estate. As it should be.??Ethan understood. Pressed together.??The jar contained ninety of each letter: O. smelled exhaust fumes. strobed.C. McBee provided a ring-bound notebook titled Standards and Practices. ??Thanks. Reynerd must have a job. too. the loss of her??just knowing that she was no longer out there somewhere in the world??had affected him. was his ally and his protecting god. he seemed to have been typecast even in failure.He shared an elevator with a solemn young couple holding hands for mutual strength.[82] Very old people.????The one that makes pit bulls bare their bellies?????That one.Behind the steering wheel of the Expedition again. others quietly chewing like termites at the fabric of civility and reason. He??s said everything he wants to say.