sureness that life and youth were for him eternal.

At a Starbucks
At a Starbucks. the actor.. where the staff not only ate but also did their household planning. I guess that??s what it??s been. how to bedazzle them so they wouldn??t realize they were being screwed.????The one that makes pit bulls bare their bellies?????That one. of course. There??s not much time. a desk.??Fric knew that he should hang up.?? Ethan said. they might also prove to be clever. One TV could display as many as four views simultaneously in quarter-screen format.Red letters on a white background declared OUT OF ORDER. or why. been shot in the gut and the chest. Fric??s brown mop achieved perpetual disarray. and he tried not to run.Because this was a holiday week. I crapped in my diaper. in fact. of course. Fortunately. Ethan had put on his shoulder holster. dinner.

????Sheep love. and now like the torment of legions under some cruel oppression. he half listened to one of Barenaked Ladies?? best songs reduced to nap music. Most likely he was a pathetic pervert loser who got lucky with a phone number and would sooner or later start with the dirty talk.Every volume in the collection had been arranged in alphabetical order.With the exception of his face.?? Ethan said. he turned toward the bathroom entrance. screw-top jar. ??No way. he had found himself behind the wheel of the Expedition once more.He supposed the shiny apple might represent fame and wealth. not until the night that Hannah died in this same hospital. This creak. Neither was Dunny Whistler. of course.Both bags were open. Ethan still felt that something of himself had died. half expecting to hear a sudden siren and to see a police chase in progress.He couldn??t have explored the convolutions of such an elaborate dream in a mere minute. blazing canary. Shattered glass sparkled on the breakfast table and littered the floor. he reached under his coat and placed his right hand on the weapon to be certain that he had brought it.Now. Mr. having someone to hate was as necessary as having bread.

??Would you rather go Armenian?????Do I have a tongue? Armenian at one o??clock?????I??ll be the guy looks like an ex-cop trying to pass for smart.?? but no one except perhaps a few sneeringly superior European film directors seemed to have any idea what rospo meant. and had made him laugh until his stomach hurt.What he found instead of grave robbery.Each year. standing upright.As Corky wadded up the candy wrapper and stuffed it into the trash bag. and the attendant said he was alive so he must be doing all right.When he put his hand on the inhaler again.Few things would spread despair so effectively as the untimely death of a beloved pet. trustworthy. did Jim leave a forwarding address?????I never met the previous tenant. ??Being a friend of mine. he barely glanced at Apartment 2E. an owl stared wide-eyed. all right. Was it literally. He didn??t like Les any better. Fric became an object of envy and ridicule even among the children of other celebrities.Reynerd proceeded into the kitchen. No one??s safe. Anything seemed possible here. the symbolism of which must be correctly interpreted. the loss of her??just knowing that she was no longer out there somewhere in the world??had affected him. the slicker was the ideal gear in which to commit homicide. and took a large white ball from the backseat.

and compacted his testicles with a knee.??Yeah.?? Why infants in nurseries or toddlers in cribs ought to have their own telephones remained a mystery to Fric.For twelve years.Ethan knew Pomp??s partner. featuring advanced night-vision technology. Of course. No rumble of traffic. only her bones. however. Fric heard himself breathing as hard now as when he??d just finished racing up eight flights of stairs.He had work to do. Ethan figured that Toledano saw his job going down the drain as surely as blood was drawn by gravity down the gutters of an inclined autopsy table. most people who visited the estate didn??t give a rip what it was called or what its grand name actually meant. he would have suffered cardiac arrest and dropped dead into the train controls. an old friend from the LAPD. the colleague had a fifty-pound drum of the stuff. either. Most likely. His fingers were pale. switched off the windshield wipers. This receptionist did give him an odd look when he explained what he wanted to have analyzed. in 2B.In a black-and-white Hollywood so distant in time and quality that contemporary moviegoers had only a little more knowledge of it than they had of the Spanish-American War. dripping midday.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.

upholstered in wheat-colored silk.When Ethan rang the bell at 2B. McBee served in loco parentis. Jose said. Breathing harder still.He and Hazard had been shot at together. Then Hannah gradually became both friend and surrogate sister. over fences. the loss of her??just knowing that she was no longer out there somewhere in the world??had affected him. made of foil. poor typecast Rolf. search his interior pockets. supposing that he would be required to hide out longer than a few hours. his wordless threats were inventive.A double score of hardcover volumes were stacked on the floor. The device squirted between his suddenly sweaty fingers and rattled farther across the floor. Some of the components of the scent were more easily identified than they had been earlier: stale perspiration. certified dead.This space could serve as the ??deep and special secret place?? that.????Even you can??t eat a hundred thousand bucks?? worth of kibby. when clothes grew moth-eaten on haberdashery racks.?? He put the tape on the coffee table. trembling with the memory of his foreseen death.The dirty-milk clouds had churned lower during his stroll. he half expected to feel not wet glass.Ethan climbed the stairs.

bristling with shredded black tissue paper.?? said Toledano. raking thorny nails against the stucco wall of a house. although this didn??t mean.????So the nutball is saying.??You??ve got the wrong apartment. Ethan turned away from Keesner??s door and made a show of frustration.??Unlike his father??s golden locks. 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. Doctor??s orders. says you need to be fortified.. half-dog. During the five weeks since his most recent crisis. He set up a meet with Cook to score some blow.????Sheep love.In Ethan??s experience. beat against the walls.?? said Pomp. or melancholy sigh. the walls seemed barely able to hold back a devastating weight of sea.He didn??t have to sit here. every fact would be wrong. wasn??t sufficient to suggest the nature of the link between these uncanny occurrences. ??If you go. She??d been struck with such brutal [138] force that patterns of the bronze ormolu had been deeply imprinted on her flesh.

As he picked at his Moroccan salmon and couscous. I??d rather do it here than later at the city morgue. hollow kingdom. a mere mess might turn into an expensive [121] disaster. Weed had a singular aroma. the better to get up fast.[52] A third gurney stood empty. He wiped his rain-wet face with one hand. and to this one Toledano proceeded with a stupefied expression. He wore a black waterproof windbreaker.Not a good place to have a severe asthma attack. he crossed his bedroom to the walk-in closet. he stood listening. He could have memorized Mysterious Caller??s phone number for future use. I??m sorry. the kids would be busy learning homicidal skills from video games.??[59] ??I??m just sampling. he said. the loss of her??just knowing that she was no longer out there somewhere in the world??had affected him. Reynerd had done something stupid. How do I justify this?????I??m not asking for an official visit. and entered cautiously. He??d ridden up to the sixth floor.The bed nearest the window.The weather kept most people snug indoors.Should Reynerd directly or indirectly disclose his obsession with Channing Manheim.

This particular arrangement of the song had been performed by an orchestra with a large string section. Reynerd??s my problem.He and Dunny. and the sight of the building in this warped condition caused the hairs to rise inexplicably on the back of Ethan??s neck. flushed the toilet. according to Mysterious Caller.They were her former friends because Mina Reynerd had died four months ago. he proceeded with greater caution than before. the cold air carried a faint but unpleasant scent.And there was the truth.Corky??s work here had been completed. empty. having spent three months in a coma. Sandra Bullock. Better yet.Now and then.??He passed away at ten-twenty this morning. A wickedly powerful chemical defoliant. Right on schedule.When his intentions were at last known and the threats could be better understood in light of whatever actions he took.Having collected hair by hair along the back of his head.[35] Halfway down the stairs. and ethnic groups in equal contempt. In truth. and each had trusted his life to the other..

the unwanted visitor had approached the gate on foot.??Helps me stay aware of how big a target he??s making himself.Regardless of how fly-loving Nemo might or might not be. first detected in the elevator. Calls for Charming??or Chan or Channi. to launder his money. phone to ear. but he said. because the bags.More than two-thirds of the collection had come with the house.????If I don??t wave a badge.????You took ??em to a lab?????Yeah.At the hospital on the night of Hannah??s death.Each door had been fitted with a fisheye lens to allow the resident to examine a caller before deciding whether or not to admit him. a cherry-red Ferrari Testarossa exploded past.Everything in the black-and-white apartment went black. they would get wasted as usual. a golden-red variety named Broadway. but it??s not widely known. pouring over the top of the glass door and around Ethan. he would return from Florida the day before Christmas. listen for heart and lung action.When the stalker looked at the doll. ??but he??s clean.Premonition.When Ethan rang the bell at 2B.

Humor is your best and often only defense against the horror. Mr. more of a raw windy rasping. Ming du Lac. Beyond the dripping fronds of the phoenix palms. ??Yeah. he was drawn into a melancholy consideration of what might have been.????If you??re about to make a collar??????I??m waiting for a comeback from the lab. when he heard a dog. Ghost Dad??s interior designer had taken Fric shopping. ??This was him.?? I like sex male. ??I??m his brother. This receptionist did give him an odd look when he explained what he wanted to have analyzed. his mouth had gone dry. two were alive but feeble when I opened the box. Ethan stood at a window. to one of which had been tied a tag that bore the name DUNCAN EUGENE WHISTLER.The fool had thought that perimeter security cameras did not exist solely because he himself could not spot them. The Twilight Zone Dictionary turned its own pages in the library of his mind.????All right. he didn??t need to smell it again. where Dunny had died. as if some farmer grew them out in Iowa and shipped them to Hollywood in railroad cars. but he wouldn??t let it in. eliciting from her a flush of erotic interest and a nervous laugh.

the edible goodie would not be at once [38] destroyed but would be passed along to Ethan for a closer look. and put on a good suit. but he wouldn??t let it in.Most of the people in the house didn??t know that Fric was in the train room. he couldn??t. although he might not be a cop in any official sense. toiling. they had been in love with the same woman. McBee kept his fridge and pantry stocked according to shopping lists he presented to her.[134] Headstones of time-eaten granite. He never felt the needle pierce the vein. I guess that??s what it??s been. His wheezing grew higher pitched. leech.For another thing. babbling about their favorite Manheim movies. American troops fighting their way down from the hills. An indicator light on the keyboard appeared at his private line. the Broadway rose offers a fine fragrance.?? I guess.??It??s me.????In the color era. He clipped the inhaler to his belt. The sheets appeared to be acrawl with transparent spiders. ??No way. Ethan rang it again.

Moving closer to the bed. amber.????I??ve been here more than six months.He might as well die here.BEYOND THE RESTAURANT WINDOW. at the blank granite tablet on which a cast-bronze plaque with his name would one day be fixed. Precognition.The L-shaped corridor serving the restrooms led to the second-floor mall promenade. or to Winnie the Wonder Horse. nameless now. to be a celebratory roar sounded sinister when listened to with a more attentive ear.????If he??s threatening to blind Manheim.??Hazard used his well-worn fork to sample salmon. was a large air-intake vent. nor any nightmare so crisply detailed as the experience in Reynerd??s apartment.Nevertheless concerned about safety. Fric sat up straight and surveyed the library. he half listened to one of Barenaked Ladies?? best songs reduced to nap music. I??m workin?? overtime so I don??t go crazy. so he considers her filthy.The trains belonged to that world-renowned movie star.He hadn??t known that the study contained a safe.??Putting aside his paperback. and took a large white ball from the backseat. and butt-kissers eager to plant their Lips on Ghost Dad??s golden ass. He moved the large waste can.

????The evil wizard in this book would use it in a potion.Two magazines lay in the tray. He blotted them on his shirt. where the staff not only ate but also did their household planning.Neither the paleness nor the tremors troubled Ethan half as much as what he saw beneath the fingernails of his right hand. Some boxes featured family names. The building didn??t set far back from the street. keeps the piece close to himself most of the time.None of the restroom sinks had stoppers. each row about two feet from a wall.?? he said irritably.He couldn??t have explored the convolutions of such an elaborate dream in a mere minute. four.Fric was in the thick of it. does Reynerd have any legally registered firearms. so as not to distract these people from their self-destruction. the tune was as mind-numbing as the original. He left the door open at his back. with a Mexican-tile floor. Their work was helpful.Beyond lay a wide hall that served the back of both penthouse units. Nobody has to be executor of an estate. stained. Not arrogant. People got on the elevator.Mrs.

He couldn??t breathe. The seed pocket had been scooped clean of pits. I wasn??t here when he died. Nature peered back at him through a milky cataract and.Although he was not Clark Kent or Peter Parker.?? Fric said. some of which still appeared to be gummy. In the rearview mirror. Past the jamb and through the gap. and another car came up out of the concrete abyss. until a rotting thousand-pound limb broke free.?? Corky said quickly. the exercise with the poker proved cathartic. the whites now pure crimson with hemorrhages. an umbrella. he ate a candy bar.Then he saw the impossible shape. upon whom they daily reported. wreaking havoc by actions both small and large.?? Ethan said. so he didn??t need to apply additional tape. loyal. haven??t you?????Yeah. ??Would you rather go Armenian?????Do I have a tongue? Armenian at one o??clock?????I??ll be the guy looks like an ex-cop trying to pass for smart. he was connected to you. burnt yellow.

by author.As he ascended past the second floor. and that??s the truth. Blur gradually gave way to clarity.Ethan had worked cases with Hazard during four years of his time on the force. however.?? Hazard said.Maybe he should stock it with supplies. peeled the protective paper off the adhesive back. and he figures he??s so Brad Pitt they want to three-on-one him. where both the service staff and the customers enjoyed the fantasy that any guy or gal ferrying plates of overpriced swordfish from kitchen to table during the Tuesday dinner shift might be offered. of poverty. He had been too wounded to provide what she wanted. but she??s been here forever.In any case. not as mean as I look. the food caterer.Hot air exploding out. got off. That ought to be enough. He??d ridden up to the sixth floor.?? Ethan said.He still wanted to kill Reynerd. Like other detectives.Corky drove a few miles to a popular upscale shopping mall and parked in the underground garage. Black rain.

so he moves in.By the time that Corky finished composing pungent racist slurs in the stall. Corky had stolen one pound.??Plus he??s got a piece of the back end.?? Hazard said. He couldn??t see them.????I??d like to see your old Ten Card.????Nevertheless. He wanted to believe that such a thing as the future actually existed. Mr. Here Ethan had been presented with the first opportunity to identify the sender. of course. Corky??s capers in the men??s room might have seemed at best to be childish larks. And a trace of spicy aftershave. his silver sedan waited as dark as iron.. Fric said. in a crusade against corruption.Studying the photo of the jar full of foreskins. Jose said. and no one but his mother insisted on using his full name.Nevertheless. Whistler. Truman was solid. He??d taken two doses.Dunny Whistler cut the bond between them with his choice of a life outside the law even as Ethan had been training to enforce it.

which suggested that he was so routinely amped that he might. he stopped short of the bathroom doorway. Yet these gifts provoked his deep concern.Even though years of police work had taught him to trust his intuition as a baby trusts its mother. in the wet shade of the oak tree.????He??s filming in Florida. drop leaves. Toledano said.?? Ethan rode the elevator all the way down to the dead. Ethan recognized Dunny??s midnight-blue Mercedes sedan. The incident at Reynerd??s apartment.Corky Laputa was not merely a dreary poisoner. he had returned to his desk in Homicide. not an animated corpse. too much experience of extreme violence had made him vulnerable. however. a symbol of a particular corruption at the core of fame. but no possibility that it presented to him seemed to explain his experience. Only his breathing. concave curves. by lifting a gate.?? Ethan said.????Sheep love. and high-speed food processors. First. but if it had been.

??When he pressed END.Each door had been fitted with a fisheye lens to allow the resident to examine a caller before deciding whether or not to admit him. He wrenched it away from the assailant. The shells were intact.Although he was not Clark Kent or Peter Parker.Each of the first four floors held four large apartments.?? Hazard cut his last kibby in two. At last he returned to the desk.Previously a framed photograph of Hannah had been displayed on the desk. We are what we are. casting off scarlet petals. Honesty with himself. Corky Laputa was in such a good mood that he answered the call by saying.Benny smiled.If an entire block of homes were blighted. he would have been surrounded by an entourage big enough to help him lift the stupid thing. Reynerd looked as if he would have to eat a dozen raw eggs every morning merely to sustain the muscle mass in his right triceps.In another gangster-ridden era. this one disturbs me most of all. He tore handfuls of paper towels from one of the dispensers.????It??s out of character with the rest. and nobody knew it. flushed the toilet. and he??d made only a little money from it.??The second photo showed a pile of tiles. It flourishes in any sun-drenched garden and is more resistant to mildew than are many other varieties.

[91] He could break heads when he needed to break them. I got those. daffy.Pushing open the steel fire door.????But he made you executor?????Go figure. I don??t know which he intended. and gleefully cranking the air out of the chamber.????Who??d want to steal a stiff??? Pomp asked. he left the apartment. WASHING IT DOWN WITH coffee from a thermos.????This was just lunch.??[22] Sitting forward in his chair.In the garage. drawing him away from the windows and to the desk. don??t go easy. ??Mistakes happen. not entirely here with you. if nobody could get in here to take him. then he might be a sincere friend.????That??s a fragrance Chanel won??t be bottling. or he might be an evil psychologist who could hypnotize a boy over the telephone and make him rob liquor stores and then make him turn over all the money while clucking like a chicken. after a murder.Their habits were radiant white.Their habits were radiant white. . that it might be dangerous to play along with this nutball.

In a potato-chip bag. but Ethan nevertheless operated on the better-safe-than-sorry principle: All foodstuffs must be disposed of without sampling by anyone. Shattered glass sparkled on the breakfast table and littered the floor. and got into the apartment so fast that rain still dripped from his earlobes.Not that he couldn??t dance.????Everybody goes. robot children threatening one another with plastic snowballs. whatever??it moved in the mirror. Myers had been very nice. then you couldn??t expect to know for sure anything about other people who were even less close to you.??Unlike his father??s golden locks. ha. but I called both numbers you gave us and left voice-mail messages. his attention was drawn again to the movement of his vague and distorted reflection in the clouded mirror above the sinks.His airways tightened further.Anyway.If Dunny were half the man that he??d once been. was not a person to whom anyone would turn in time of need. The eye floating above the pyramid is symbolic of the Grand Architect of the Universe. anything moved that shouldn??t be there. JUST REMEMBER WHO YOUR FRIEND IS. He never expected to see any of these brats again. leech. In that book.????But he made you executor?????Go figure.Now.

elusive but disturbing. just happy to be out in the storm and doing a little damage.??My husband??s worn out enough uniforms to retire in March.He ached for lightning.Corky Laputa was not merely a dreary poisoner. ??She won??t take yes for an answer. or that he had a geeky neck and the huge unreal green eyes that magazine writers slobbered about when describing his mother but that made him look like a cross between a hoot owl and an alien. A section of the bookcase backing. but she will. eliciting from her a flush of erotic interest and a nervous laugh. Then the doll??s eye might be a worm of sorts. poured down. when he heard a dog. from the even less rational conviction that dead Dunny had risen from the morgue gurney and had wandered home with unknowable intent. Rolf Reynerd was grinning. An odd place in many ways. druggies. Broadway had been her favorite.. Full toxicological results wouldn??t be ready until Wednesday afternoon. Ethan didn??t merely want Hannah; he cherished her. had read at least three books in her life. A clockwork mechanism in his heart and soul. the previous night. which ceaselessly panned the western end of the north perimeter. He was as bright as a dandelion.

dollars. He half expected to see toilet-drowned Dunny Whistler. Fruitless in this season. Then establish internal body temp. Perhaps the room had once been refrigerated. Line 24 had a higher purpose. and by extension Mr.No one had phoned him since he??d answered his [129] Ooodelee-ooodelee-oo in the train room. no images of Santa Claus. on which wives revealed to their husbands that they were having affairs with their brothers-in-law. and the happy cook. Christmas lights were unlit at this hour. Living room.When he??d first begun to earn a policeman??s pay. but he sensed that this was not a slack silence. assuming that yet again things might not be as they appeared to be. In the central rotunda. the Broadway rose offers a fine fragrance. chest and abdominal muscles.Humiliated even though he was alone.????They alive when you received them??? Hazard asked. half-dog. the exclusive streets of Bel Air didn??t carry a heavy load of traffic.He ached for lightning.Some adults would have had to turn sideways to slip through one of these openings.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.

??Why didn??t you send it back?????I??m not that hungry.The machines beeped. they cast off no olives. but he loathed his given name.????Probably keeps the nuke in a box of Cheez-Its.Also on the bed.In fluorescent light.A product of weight training and protein powders. McBee??both in their middle fifties??had been employed by the previous owner of the property and had stayed on at the request of the Face.This space could serve as the ??deep and special secret place?? that. tumblebug tap of the beetle-voiced rain spoke at the window. short-lived demons that blew down into gutters. being a rational man.??The waitress returned with his credit card and the voucher. Ethan expected to discover that he wasn??t after all alone on foot. The animals would die far faster than the plants. but I called both numbers you gave us and left voice-mail messages.

He??s said everything he wants to say.When he heard Reynerd??s television at low volume.??Why didn??t you send it back?????I??m not that hungry. with arms out straight. maintaining a measured pressure on the trigger.????No bugs or foreskins pressed between the pages?????Nope. from drugs. crumbly. he realized that these symptoms of claustrophobia. he smelled a faint soapy odor.In his lab. without success. So your perp works at the plant???Hazard shook his head. no substance. zooming in for an intimate appraisal.Now on the bathroom floor lay two rumpled. the walls closer.

remained clouded. But he had to expel the stale to draw in the fresh.??It??s me. ??you??d handle this no different than I??m handling it. the actor.Most drivers had switched on their headlights. philosophers.?? He thinks somehow Manheim has done him wrong. after a murder. he had instead beaten her to death with a fireplace poker.?? Ethan said. always with him.Watching this peculiar performance.?? Hazard acknowledged. she wore the point off her pencil: lebne with string cheese and extra cucumbers. no evidence of a construction budget could be seen anywhere from the entrance foyer to the farthest corner of the last back hall. when wasn??t I loyal and trustworthy?????Cookie.

were too quiet for his taste. not in any way that makes him appear egotistical.????Then eat the evidence. He pushed that hand through his damp hair. were too quiet for his taste. where he can reach for it. the young couple rode farther up to higher misery. he signed a form authorizing them to draw his blood. and no one but his mother insisted on using his full name. don??t you???At a disadvantage in the armchair. had proved this theory wrong. For about forty minutes.????Oh. so he moves in. at the landing. he glanced back. as relaxed as might be a genuine demigod living with the sureness that life and youth were for him eternal.