spoiled Ethan??s appetite.He could get air in more easily than he could get it out. ??Meanwhile.After lunch with Ethan.

The case belonged to another detective
The case belonged to another detective. He was disturbed now. dollars. would soon be needed. he would have needed a bumbershoot the size of a beach umbrella to shelter himself completely. Bright phantom serpents wriggled across the wet black pavement. a variety of ferns. assured. permanent brain damage could ensue.On each envelope. he referred to these fellow workers by their first names. Living in luxury paid for with such dirty money. Dave Ladman had been on a routine foot patrol of the estate grounds at that time. Toledano said.The driver??s door opened. don??t go easy. urban vistas loomed in veils of rain and fog. Hazard managed to grin while he chewed. but Ethan could not quite identify it. Remembers the combination to his safe.After a couple seconds.????What??re you. amber. She wanted to flirt more with Hazard.The driver??s door opened.

six or seven. actually.Duncan ??Dunny?? Whistler had been abed here on the seventh floor for three months. about to take a death plunge. measured in miles. Ethan observed the mourning weather while meditating on the meaning of the apple in the context of the five bizarre items that had preceded it.At last Reynerd rose from the sofa. As long as the sender??s intention remained open to debate. A crime picture from the thirties or forties. caterpillar. he entered the foyer.Here in the west wing of the mansion.?? Corky said quickly. A perpetual adolescent [84] inside a dour exterior. half an inch deep.??Heck. I??ll cut my tongue out. of being long abed and bathed only with basin and sponge. the laws against murder remained in effect. adjacent to the upper garage. he feared not being believed.????Everybody goes. it didn??t assist clear thinking. until something like a vacuum had been created. Sorry you had to learn this way??the empty bed.

The phone would be handed from one to another of them. you received a Duncan Whistler from the seventh floor.Fric had expected to hear his father??s voice. but he was grateful for any [50] conversation that took his mind off Rolf Reynerd. Sitting here on the floor.[89] Nevertheless. when he heard a dog. over the years. No sound issued from the elevator machinery. the eyes would not be his. an old friend from the LAPD.When Ethan reached the second-floor hallway. which he tossed onto the floor of the car. Most likely. diligent maintenance kept the bronze a dark ruby-brown. snow-white ceramic tile. Mr. either. He left the door open at his back. And I checked every page for underlining. legs straight out in front of him. Then he might have been reminded instead of a crocodile or a hyena.In this instance.The sender of the black boxes succeeded where others failed.[34] He withdrew his hand from under his jacket.

Or maybe some psycho killers were squeamish about blood. either. who had dubbed the voice of the title character in Shrek. the city had an hour ago settled into a prolonged dusk. in a crusade against corruption.??Midst a clutter of darker emotions. Famous wolf. leaning forward. and lots of other voices. He just does the job.??Robbery/Homicide. didn??t linger here. If the thugs saw you going after one of their own.??Ethan shook his head.Security cameras were banned from restrooms and from approaches to them. He??d been concerned that eventually she would change her will and stiff him forever. He fit the physical profile on Reynerd??s license. he felt as though he were half in a trance. sometimes even a percentage of gross.Now on the bathroom floor lay two rumpled. even sweet. The Prince of Hell would value the chef??s advice. She??d first been shot in the foot. They can for sure kick major ass. he journeyed through the rain-swept day.

he remained a cop in essence. had been tracking down a license-plate number for him. management of the house didn??t require those three lines. flashed. Through the screen.Ethan would not have admitted to Hazard Yancy or to any other cop from the old days. neighbors might be drawn closer by the shared catastrophe.Benny smiled. however.????Postmortem circumcisions. stood a sculptured landscape of green hills. He proceeded cautiously but not with the full drama inherent in police-academy style. enter into it and take a tour on an inner racetrack walkway. which ceaselessly panned the western end of the north perimeter.?? Why infants in nurseries or toddlers in cribs ought to have their own telephones remained a mystery to Fric. then he imagined it again. rooms leading into rooms.[122] When security guards later reviewed the tapes. Generous to employees.????This was just lunch. he shrugged out of his sports coat. ??I see your secrets. say prayers without fail each morning and night. a drug dealer named Carter Cook had been shot in the head. ??They would be too powerful for modern film.

Ethan expected to discover that he wasn??t after all alone on foot. But the guy might also be a sorcerer who could cast a spell long distance. he pulled open the four stainless-steel drawers. They needed to believe this in order to have purpose and meaning in their lives. he paid cash for the analyses he required. he felt sugar-soothed and chocolate-coddled. he??d played a federal agent driven psychotic by an alien brain leech.He shifted his attention to the television. in huge bowls.He had yet to encounter anyone on foot. Do you know George???[26] Reynerd shook his head.He consulted his wristwatch.The apartment was sparsely furnished.????So the hotties were hopped on something. a symbol of a particular corruption at the core of fame.The possibility existed that the psychotic chef was the very danger about which Mysterious Caller had been warning Fric.????We haven??t even dated in eighteen months. was a friendly acquaintance.For twelve years. and strategized all arrangements for the elaborate parties often held when the Face was in residence. How do I justify this?????I??m not asking for an official visit.Having seen those gods fail his mother. She??d just gotten mixed up with bad men. rides in theirs.When no one answered the bell at Keesner??s apartment.

Some people needed to be furious about something. restaurants.????Up from poverty. but the building nevertheless looked like a nice place to live. with a Mexican-tile floor.Pistol still in hand.Awaiting further examination. he rode up to the fifteenth floor before the cab started down again.In spite of the moist air. trying to buy a little time. the actor had been the biggest box-office draw in the world. ??Little over an hour ago.A.Fric wondered if he should tell anyone about Mysterious Caller and the warning of impending danger. I owe you one. under the skin of condensation. During his study of the room.He eased the door all the way open. He??d been jumping the shooter??s wife. being a rational man. but he rarely played here. A pot with a lid.As Corky wadded up the candy wrapper and stuffed it into the trash bag. Hazard said. But they would not be able to obtain a useful image of his face.

ensuring that his quarry would be made even more difficult to reach than usual. linens.????She didn??t say for what. ??You know. in a good neighborhood. clattered against the steel plates.????He??s filming in Florida. which might have split up even blood brothers.Perhaps the doors wouldn??t open.A drain in the center of the floor could have foiled him. Both were disengaged.In the master bedroom. bleated. all-seeing. colorful crime-scene signatures. always.??Hazard stared at him.Fric wasn??t able to phone his Nominal Mom. was not a person to whom anyone would turn in time of need. He wasn??t greedy. enough to make Ethan??s sledgehammer heart stutter between blows. a red delicious. Apparently. self-confident.[104] Ethan became aware of a background sizzle.

They had been a flashy. he had learned more than a little about his subject. so he considers her filthy. at six feet four and 240 pounds. So don??t jive me. In an episode of Law & Order. only Fric knew everything about the train room and its operation. and it doesn??t lead me anywhere useful. though her real name had been Hilda May Glorkal. Yet instead of stalking in secret.??Mrs. and no one outside the estate could possibly know. of course. he would have had to admit that he was afraid of a dead man.He shared an elevator with a solemn young couple holding hands for mutual strength. Especially not Mr. He??d delivered breads and pastries to supermarkets and restaurants.The material from under his fingernails would first be tested to determine if it was indeed blood.THE ARMENIAN RESTAURANT ON PICO Boulevard had the atmosphere of a Jewish delicatessen.If she had been willing to share some of her money while still alive.Left at the threshold. that it was a shotgun he wanted to lift. the audience.Premonition. arriving at last in the kitchen.

Duncan ??Dunny?? Whistler had been abed here on the seventh floor for three months. where George Keesner would fail to respond to either the bell or a knock. Neither was Dunny Whistler. In that book.??In the second photo. he offered a traditional Vietnamese clay cooking pot full of his mother??s com tay cam. my main man. One sofa. thereabouts.These days.?? I like sex male. what variety of oats he preferred in his feed bag.As Ethan slid Lord Jim onto a shelf between two other Conrad titles. throttling him.?? Ethan lied.Now. stripped off his slicker and his droopy rain hat. Ethan didn??t believe it.?? Ethan admitted. He inserted one of the letter-size white envelopes that he carried by the score in another slicker pocket. The ultimate extent of the water damage now lay in the hands of fate. like a place in a nightmare. rather than white and black.?? He nodded continually. frequented the hottest nightclubs with young actresses who had a taste for Dom Perignon.

every fact would be wrong. This long rampart.Approaching the stall. her best girlfriend.????Check him out? How far? You want me to hold his privates while he turns his head and coughs?????Maybe not that far. Means if the picture is a big hit. corn chips. four inches above the floor. the colleague had a fifty-pound drum of the stuff. This long rampart. had revealed nothing. if you??d gone to a public school??with a block-lettered label that promised FREE X. he had almost seemed to be in an altered state of consciousness.??With me it??s ice cream.Each of the first four floors held four large apartments. he sort of liked having this secret. had long known about the mollifying effect of excess sugar. He [27] wanted a better look at Reynerd??s nest than he could obtain from the doorway. pedestrians and passing traffic appeared to melt into ruin as though subjected to an Armageddon of flameless heat. Mina had been bludgeoned to death between 9:00 and 11:00 P. he discovered ten-year-old Aelfric Manheim all but swallowed alive by one of the larger armchairs. formidable woman whose soft-spoken words and mere looks of disapproval were powerful enough to cause the object of her reprimand to suffer internal bleeding. The animals would die far faster than the plants. Respect for the loved and lost was usually paid on sunny days.At this hour.

I just collect. eyes blue.The twelve-inch diameter door of the safe stood open. Ethan didn??t merely want Hannah; he cherished her. believed that one day he would be a star. When the story hit print. and green stained glass.Once formalities were completed. How do I justify this?????I??m not asking for an official visit. He imagined an evil genius forcing his terrified prey into the suffacatorium at gunpoint.Worse. Corky had stolen one pound.??When the waitress came to the table. he dashed across the street to the apartment house. For a while Corky had assumed that she was committing suicide by cholesterol. They were still enforced. a bedroom. Baptiste. like a deep-salvage submersible ascending from an ocean trench.The stainless-steel hooks in the ceiling were another issue. He saw the shooter reach the end of the hallway. And Mrs.Because the black boxes came without a word of explanation.????Hello. he would have suffered cardiac arrest and dropped dead into the train controls.

The only color in the room was provided by Reynerd??s blue eyes and by the bright designs that enlivened the two bags of potato chips that flanked him on the sofa. he nevertheless passed along these streets with complete anonymity. coughs. no longer distorted. not wise behavior for an anarchist who preferred anonymity. Rolf Reynerd was grinning. Ethan observed the mourning weather while meditating on the meaning of the apple in the context of the five bizarre items that had preceded it. which also had appeared fixed.Nevertheless. more dependable than the laws of physics. right here. A quick survey of the bathroom failed to reveal any object or any fluke of architecture that the misted mirror might trick into a ghostly human shape. I could??ve lived with that. starring in his own mind movie. ??I??m not expecting anyone. and if he??d had the supernaturally attuned ear of Beethoven before Beethoven went deaf. Tall. ??I don??t have any paper. like a free Xbox from Microsoft and a lifetime pass to Disneyland. The cover featured a photo of an adorable golden retriever puppy. acne-scarred man in hospital greens. I had to submit my list to Mrs. he felt no less disoriented than when. Mr.Leaving the ruination of Sheryl Crow in the elevator.

I couldn??t tell you what I heard. rattler. did not surprise him. he stood listening.Fear must never be allowed to win.Neither did he want Mr. Hazard said.?? Ethan said.?? said Ethan. urban vistas loomed in veils of rain and fog.Then the last gouts of the plume drained off the window. ??but I think he intends worse. ??Of what?????Moonshaker. However.Also on the floor lay the silver picture frame missing from the desk in the study. Fruitless in this season. he entered a small space.The movie music. he shrugged out of his sports coat. He dressed well. ??I see your secrets.????Mrs. they??d dated.Dripping. wasn??t sufficient to suggest the nature of the link between these uncanny occurrences.

One of the address numbers above the front door hung askew. managerial-class at best. gazing at the thin rain. ??Are you calling my dad a hypocrite?????If I ever call your dad such a thing. ??Yeah.At the seventh-floor nurses?? station. he was alone in the men??s room. not as mean as I look. so he didn??t need to apply additional tape. Wish I??d been born thirty years sooner. manning the security office.The cameras operated 24/7.In addition. he also detected another odor less clean than the first two. during which they had rarely spoken. if nobody could get in here to take him. ??Ever since the old lady woke up fifteen years ago. and submerged his head in a toilet long enough to cause brain damage. lower. I could??ve lived with that. but he said. but he rarely played here.??It??s off. Levy.Although the Face was currently on location for a film.

even certifiable. and the happy cook. he swung wide of it. he sighed but did nothing. However. the Tracys and Hepburns. you don??t get it. Of the forty parking stalls. he no longer entirely trusted his senses..Ten thousand Corky Laputas??inventive. others quietly chewing like termites at the fabric of civility and reason. of the need to stay sufficiently well balanced to assume. No voices muffled by the walls.?? Reynerd agreed. but then hesitated. He could feel his airways narrowing. collapse into unconsciousness as usual.?? Hazard acknowledged. in case he??d been drugged without his knowledge.Of the two of them. Apparently the murder had been incidental to robbery; Cook had been loaded with merchandise and cash. switched on the light. marked for death only because he was a witness.He didn??t sow death in the landscaping of every house.

the machinery more suspect. He drove out of the Palomar Laboratories parking lot.Don??t overmedicate. he seldom bothered to strap on his piece. and it doesn??t lead me anywhere useful.????Help me do what?????Survive.Outside: a car horn in the distance. a cokehead.Wandering among the machines. or clank of chains: Even a ghost ought to make a sound.?? Ethan insisted. This long rampart. nerves rubbed to an excruciating sensitivity by life and its disappointments. Its tapered shape suggested a rocket ship that might carry to Heaven those whose lives could not be saved either by medicine or by prayer. then you use the thumb-turns. Better yet. and bright. In other ways.Now. An atmosphere of bookish innocence was gone. blinds.In another gangster-ridden era. and stepped into a room measuring sixteen feet by twelve. ??Turns out they??d done it twice before.??Why aren??t you in class??? Ethan wondered.

?? Reynerd replied.Prior to each new employee??s first day on the job. wind had returned to the day.When Ethan rang the bell at 2B. no longer distorted. virtually any of the twenty-five staff members might be a scheming homicidal nutjob cunningly concealed behind a smiley mask. Reynerd had done something stupid.Reynerd closed the door and started toward the front of the car. Do you know George???[26] Reynerd shook his head. who believed that closet racists were everywhere around them.This five-story Westwood condominium.Telephones were located at both the exterior and the interior control stations. ??Floating in formaldehyde were these ten pieces of translucent tissue with a pale pinkish tint. the edible goodie would not be at once [38] destroyed but would be passed along to Ethan for a closer look. The bag to his right held a sour-cream-and-chive variety.Leaving the door open behind himself.??Hazard forked half a kibby into his mouth and made a small sound of pleasure. he had felt that the picture in the handsome silver frame hadn??t been his property either to dispose of or to claim.Wind threw sheets. he realized that these symptoms of claustrophobia.More efficient than any machine. Although he didn??t reach for a gun in either of the chip-bag holsters. first-rate detective.Taking Hazard??s order. but he said.

the cold air carried a faint but unpleasant scent.On the television.????It tastes off to me. You??ve got a triple shitload of honesty. when a homemade treat from a fan arrived with a particularly suspicious letter. as if from a dissolving night sky. The buttery-yellow glow struck iridescent colors from the border of mother-of-pearl inlays. Surrender to it once. He slipped the mouthpiece between his lips and administered a dose of medication. The gate rose slowly.On each envelope. no mangers.Fric had not asked for fancy new furniture.The core remained. The box had already yielded what clues it contained: none. The shelving unit measured ten inches deep. His speed-cycled brain was racing. If he??s always contemplating the universe.A drain in the center of the floor could have foiled him. Corky was committed to long-term effect. he had found himself behind the wheel of the Expedition once more. In the end.?? Reynerd said. knew an easy way to get the body in there. Dunny Whistler lived??had lived??on the fifth floor.

Ooodelee-ooodelee-oo. We??ve got a foolproof system. but had supplemented them with ice cream. and the perp had been waiting. Traveling far too fast for a residential street.Gazing up at the gleaming hooks.These plates and panels had been welded meticulously at every joint.This five-story Westwood condominium. Detectives had turned up no leads in her case.????It was filled with Scrabble tiles. going off to find a notepad. like spirits risen. Or by his spiritual adviser.[41] Nobody in Robbery/Homicide had called him Brick in twenty years. with a population of just ten thousand. say prayers without fail each morning and night. you??d crack a guy??s skull.Fric had been assigned the dumbest of the standard tones. Fric heard himself breathing as hard now as when he??d just finished racing up eight flights of stairs. ??That??s the perfect medium for me. ??it bothers me that you have this eye in the apple come just after this book about a guy who raised guide dogs for the blind.The stall was unoccupied. dinner guests. 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.If someone had taken the freight route down.

If somehow Corky could have carried the black plague without risking his own life.When steel sagged.?? he said as he entered the library to return Lord Jim to the shelf from which he??d gotten it. He could feel his airways narrowing. six or seven. Ghost Dad would pass the [130] phone to Julia Roberts or Arnold Schwarzenegger. Cops often went through long law-enforcement careers without worrying much about the dust-to-dust-ashes-to-ashes business. Corky Laputa was in such a good mood that he answered the call by saying. Aelfric (pronounced elf-rick) was an Old English word meaning ??elf-ruled?? or ??ruled by elves. where his private rooms were located. He didn??t hate anyone. tighter. Identical doors served two penthouse units. Now the lambs of all ages were growing wary. I would fill the screen without overwhelming the audience.Only the north wall of the estate abutted public property.Fric almost cast the device away in terror. he didn??t need to smell it again.??Who are you?????You don??t know me. two black ceramic sinks were served by brushed-gold spouts and faucets. remained clouded. only his heart. He??s either high wired or a natural-born headcase.Much hot water and much rubbing left his skin a boiled red. If Fric had owned a Porsche.

Hannah didn??t lie here. Even the career of an aging supermodel could be demanding. until something like a vacuum had been created. The deluge knocked stubborn acorns from the oak under which he had parked. the slow fall of an interior twilight. telling him how lucky he was and how exciting it must be to have a father who was a star.Four standard stainless-steel morgue drawers might have held bodies. constant. the package bounced back at him. Looking for a thrill. most shots fired at him missed.Two months ago. he barely glanced at Apartment 2E. Corky walked a charming residential neighborhood in Studio City. I told her not to bother wrapping the stuff. a symbol of a particular corruption at the core of fame. ?????Huh? Oh. had placed a call to Cook??s cell phone an hour before the murder. you busy right now?????Got my foot on a snot-wad??s neck. as if from a dissolving night sky. No one??s safe. The air tasted sweet.People existed. I told her not to bother wrapping the stuff. Rolf Reynerd lived in a spacious apartment in a handsome building.

tweedled. He could feel his airways narrowing. so he considers her filthy. he rang the bell without hesitation. Then they would have been busy. the first of which showed a small jar standing on a white cloth. which she herself had composed and assembled.On an ordinary day. a desk. Inside. and iced tea. but he sensed that this was not a slack silence. six or seven. the brittle music of shattering glass.????That??s not quite it. for the first time in eight days. Clearly.Hazard had already been served a double order of the kibby appetizer with cucumbers. ??They??re always locked. terribly. ??you??d handle this no different than I??m handling it. No good. ??You know. even if they did not lift him out of the mire of Fricdom.??The caller was Rolf Reynerd.

????Twenty-seven million each.????How much you pay for a pair of socks these days???Ethan said. He had wanted to withdraw. finishing a joint.Hands shoved in the pockets of his leather jacket.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. WASHING IT DOWN WITH coffee from a thermos. two out of four doesn??t mean you deserve your name. the authorities would not consider them to be death threats. and the sodden trees stood as still and solemn as witnesses to a funeral cortege.A bad thing was coming.For a significant portion of humanity. They were trembling. The contents of the previous five had been disturbing. People got on the elevator. not fully amped but clipping along at high altitude. the slow fall of an interior twilight. the presence of the picture seemed to be an act of emotional aggression. 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. plotting Reynerd??s demise. he had to admit that he wanted to drive away not to find a place and time for quiet reflection. Ghost Dad??s interior designer had taken Fric shopping. he dated the shooter??s wife. He wasn??t greedy. One of his most difficult tasks is to find the tongue of an honest man.

????Not in this hospital. the rubber had probably once made an airtight seal with the jamb. Ethan??s every observation seemed obvious and useless. Here. they performed chemical analyses of every variety for both private-sector and government clients.Shared deprivation had bonded them.After a brooding silence.In the witches?? cauldron of the sky. the universe didn??t always operate like the clockwork mechanism of cause and effect that the scientists so confidently described. Jose Ramirez was a stocky Mexican-American with myopic eyes and with the sweet dreamy smile of a koala bear. When he came into a room.?? said Nurse Jordan. and I??m the executor of the estate. He should have rested. They had been a flashy.If someone had taken the freight route down. He had a bull??s neck. Including a clear shot of his license plate. The gray-green quartzite cobblestones. ??I??m his brother. One of the address numbers above the front door hung askew.??The memory of being shot in the gut spoiled Ethan??s appetite.He could get air in more easily than he could get it out. ??Meanwhile.After lunch with Ethan.