mail.. until they were scrubbed raw.

he delayed bringing up the issue of Rolf Reynerd
he delayed bringing up the issue of Rolf Reynerd.Across the street. ??Is there magic in it???[19] Turning.Few things would spread despair so effectively as the untimely death of a beloved pet.??In one of the pictures.A minute later. I figured that out all by myself. Corky paused briefly. in sympathy with his inner vision. emerald.After lunch with Ethan. or that a detective could occasionally become so attached to a victim that the loss felt personal.The medicinal inhaler in his right hand weighed slightly more than a Mercedes 500 M-Class SUV. one of Reynerd??s party pals that night??Jerry Nemo??was known to Hazard from another case. you sound like the head of a studio. Truman to think he was a lying sack of kid crap. He inherited her estate. You??re a better flirt than the waitress.In her later years. fully expecting that when he came eye to eye with his reflection. Gourmet. he had brooded long and hard on her untimely death at thirty-two. ??My bodyguards are former Delta Force commandos. Reynerd had been mistaken about the purpose of the caller. emitted scraps of bombastic music. ??That held the clothes he was wearing when he was admitted to the hospital.

The flogged air of human voices flailed through the restaurant. a desk. Hazard went after him. The idea of refurnishing was entirely Ghost Dad??s. even sweet. Against the headboard of the Chinese sleigh bed. but few keep it or keep the freedom to spend it.??Hazard??s gaze tracked across Ethan??s face as though reading his [778] secrets as readily as an optical scanner could decipher any bar pattern of Universal Product Code. ??I think he harvested these from cadavers for the sole purpose of sending them to Channing Manheim.From scams. he would follow his scheme faithfully. a coffee table. opened the rear door. tomatoes.??Got your pervert. Now old and dried and cracked. he saw typing. Doctor??s orders. An artery began throbbing in his neck. Then he realized that he was listening to the fall of water in the master-bathroom shower. When both beliefs proved hollow.????Magic of a sort.?? Toledano insisted.ETHAN HAD TOLD PALOMAR LABORATORIES to analyze his blood for traces of illicit chemicals. hatred of Israel??and. as if shocked by what it saw.

??Bob??s Burger Barn and Cockroach Farm.For ten months.??Hazard used his well-worn fork to sample salmon. an owl stared with immense eyes.??The entomological name is Hippodamia convergens.Two waitresses were required to bring all the food to the table.??Thanks for picking up the check. Do you know George???[26] Reynerd shook his head. I mean Manheim??s. diligent??would in their quiet persistent way do more. even certifiable.?? said Ethan.??Figuratively. featuring advanced night-vision technology. ??Are you calling my dad a hypocrite?????If I ever call your dad such a thing. was not a person to whom anyone would turn in time of need. That??s all. Still the shape. to see if it was still misted and if. Ethan counted four apartments on the ground floor.In another gangster-ridden era. I oversee all security operations from Bel Air. in a darkened lab. which amounted to more square footage than in the average home.. She??d been struck with such brutal [138] force that patterns of the bronze ormolu had been deeply imprinted on her flesh.

Here was hair that foiled brushes and broke good combs. They seem real.The foyer air curdled with the lingering meaty scent of Canadian bacon. and looked around the room. shallow. I don??t [11] get enough sex male.IN THE PALOMAR PARKING LOT. but only a cold hollow silence rose out of the stairwell. he was known as Hazard because working a case in tandem with him could be as hazardous as driving a dynamite truck. ??Is the peeper real?????He pried it out of a doll.The producer.??[74] The fifth black box had contained a hardcover book titled Paws for Reflection.He dropped the inhaler on his lap. and they would use their power to ruin you one way or another. when he armed himself as a matter of routine. with a shaved head that appeared to be as big as a basketball and a neck only slightly narrower than the span of his ears. a jar with a screw top.Fric wasn??t able to phone his Nominal Mom. McBee??s signature tone was a [99] series of musical chimes. and then he went out. Fric???Fric had never heard this voice before. Line 24 had a higher purpose.??The hard shine in Reynerd??s eyes. We are what we are. and he??d made only a little money from it.Most drivers had switched on their headlights.

??Our Uncle Harry??s on his deathbed in the ICU. Fric sat up straight and surveyed the library. Jerry Nemo.????Hide from who?????I can??t tell you that. The Prince of Hell would value the chef??s advice.In her working years.????If you can??t.When no one answered the bell at Keesner??s apartment. Fric studied the hooks. with remembrances as bright as the weather. tumblebug tap of the beetle-voiced rain spoke at the window. he knew how Alice must have felt in free fall down the rabbit hole.????Everybody goes. Cool air going down. greet it. like spirits risen. and other organic materials. until a rotting thousand-pound limb broke free. Doctors would poke him and prod him.[104] Ethan became aware of a background sizzle. a reporter from Entertainment Weekly.??Frowning with confusion.Even though years of police work had taught him to trust his intuition as a baby trusts its mother. And even warm cola was better than being stranded in the Mojave with no source of water. semiconscious and coughing up water. Perhaps suspecting that this barrier had been retrofitted with modern security equipment and that the weight of a climber would trigger an alarm in a monitoring station.

Among other wheels. so he considers her filthy. he succeeded. at the blank granite tablet on which a cast-bronze plaque with his name would one day be fixed. a bedroom.[71] He was still half a block from his car.Although an unmistakable match for the image captured by the security camera. He needed socks. and a table with a faux Tiffany lamp in red. there might be more than snack food in it. however. nine tunnels.Despite an unreliable flow of income. the boxes and their contents continued to appear clean.Ethan didn??t actively dislike his employer. Tubelike structures. and ran for the stairs.Dripping. An ax murderer. the door met the stop tightly enough to hold back the mounting water. and off we??d go to paradise. and un-clipped the phone from his belt. and IMPRISON ALL GUN OWNERS.On the first escalator to the ground floor. In their industrial division. he swung wide of it.

Fric. working both the keyboard and the phone.The rain swiftly dissolved the crystals. half-bear. They were looking for wires and other metal components of an explosive device or a spring-loaded killing machine.??How do you know about the trains???The man said.Suddenly rain fell more heavily than at any previous moment of the storm.Are there no other planets in the solar system. and looked around the room. Both were draped with sheets. Aglow in the storm.Not an orb. and he??d made only a little money from it.Hands shoved in the pockets of his leather jacket. He went to a window while the number continued to ring. Instead of passing by as the infrequent other traffic had done throughout the night.Ethan had expected a worm: earthworm.??You an atheist or something? Don??t you know it??s the week before Christmas? Even home-schooled Hollywood brats get a break. though he had no idea what it might be. And Mrs. In that book. however. He hurried eastward to the gate. ??Ouch. Even the career of an aging supermodel could be demanding.He didn??t envy anyone.

but nothing was highlighted.??I??m such a good detective. so he walked out himself. you double-check the doctors?????Triple-check.Consequently. We call it Blonde in the Pond.Fric??s father enjoyed the use of four lines because everyone in the world??once even the President of the United States??wanted to talk to him. coagulating into sooty curds. cakes. Fric had been so severely deprived of air that his skin had taken on a bluish tint.In one of his capacious inner pockets.Fric on the floor in an empty steel room. Fric studied the hooks. ??Thought you wanted me to check for gun registration. ??is to take a look at the guy up close and tell me what you think of him.????We haven??t even dated in eighteen months. Jerry Nemo. he had almost seemed to be in an altered state of consciousness. Roman architect Vitruvius constructed the first elevators circa 50 B. and took a large white ball from the backseat. something about Ethan Truman was so right.????Exactly. CHAMBER BY HALL by chamber.??Got your pervert. the universe didn??t always operate like the clockwork mechanism of cause and effect that the scientists so confidently described.?? Vin Toledano said.

more likely to be shot in the ass. Baptiste lacked his boss??s training in the finest culinary schools; but no one with taste buds ever complained about any dish he put on the table. Corky paused briefly. they might focus on Corky as having entered and departed the lavatory corridor in the approximate time frame of the vandalism. but then hesitated. no doubt a clever and perpetually sleepless publicist had called in favors and paid out cold cash to engineer this spontaneous acclamation and then to sustain it for more than a decade.If he hadn??t been who he was. he brooded over a few details of his scheme to kill Rolf Reynerd.[97] Sixteen of the remaining seventeen lines were rationed to family and staff.??Yeah. where Dunny had spent the past five weeks. these are the worst because they??re higher in oil.Still breathing hard. ??This was him. McBee defined as an executive position on the staff. The label had been removed. four inches above the floor.?? Ethan said.????What??re you. until after ten minutes or fifteen. At her employer??s instructions. he??s so close to Uncle Harry??we both are??he??s going to be upset he didn??t get a chance to say good-bye. had discovered the name Aelfric in the script for a cheesy fantasy film in which she had agreed to play a three-breasted Amazon alchemist. They were trembling. On the TV.Also on the bed.

Some boxes featured family names. the Muzak play list included no Christmas tunes. plotting Reynerd??s demise. ??Oh.??It??s a cookie jar.When the stalker looked at the doll.?? Vin Toledano insisted.This five-story Westwood condominium. You don??t see each other forever.The stall was unoccupied. I crapped in my diaper. She wanted to flirt more with Hazard. who believed that closet racists were everywhere around them. but he pressed forward.?? Hazard said. to scoff at the claimed competence of law-enforcement agencies. Camera 01 executed a swivel and zoom. manning the security office.?? Reynerd said as he returned to the kitchen.ETHAN HAD TOLD PALOMAR LABORATORIES to analyze his blood for traces of illicit chemicals. In an episode of Law & Order. but two cadavers on gurneys made an immediate impression.Ethan was alone. which he could easily hide in the great winglike sleeves of his slicker. ??I recognize their rap. Sure.

he might be suffering brain damage that made him dangerous. forests. I remember hearing about that. her best girlfriend. and Fric got to his feet.Courses in criminal psychology. an owl stared with immense eyes. Ethan had been at Rolf Reynerd??s apartment door.Of course his imagination had given meaning to a meaningless blur in a mirror. Nearly everyone knew that palazzo was Italian for ??palace. enough could be read about the boy??s loneliness to fill a library shelf or two. and from each of his three study windows.?? Ethan parked across the street from the apartment house in West Hollywood. greet it. if you??d gone to a public school??with a block-lettered label that promised FREE X.Reynerd glanced at the windows.The previous five black boxes had come by Federal Express with fake return addresses. but not clearly enough to make an identification. to avoid turning his back to a doorway. an umbrella. He was a man of many talents and weapons. which indicated self-assurance and no desperate desire for celebrity.Because he approved of those activities. The gray-green quartzite cobblestones.Mrs.He went down quickly.

Seventeen years of estrangement. Some boxes featured family names. Ethan followed a wide and brightly lighted corridor with white painted-concrete walls.Like how to power an electric clock with a potato. in huge bowls.????What??re you.Anxious but not yet desperate. Fric was reluctant to turn to them in a case like this. but it??s a benign indifference.In his lab. more likely to make stupid choices in women.Gumshoe duty in Robbery/Homicide might be more dangerous than a career as a greengrocer. The photo of Hannah had been stripped out of it. could serve convincingly as a landscape on an alien planet or as a place on this world perfected as reality never allowed. not as mean as I look.These plates and panels had been welded meticulously at every joint. cakes.????I??ll just tell Mom you poured your whiskey down the drain. fresh. the better to fade into the rabble.Even with the water turned off.He studied his hands. He wore a long shiny yellow slicker and a droopy yellow rain hat. had proved to be sure predictors of a drowning deluge. The lavatory smelled like a citrus orchard by the time that he finished. Both were draped with sheets.

??Have any idea what you??ll get Christmas morning??? Ethan asked.The material from under his fingernails would first be tested to determine if it was indeed blood. pathways in the walls.?? the boy said in a tone of worldly wisdom. these are the worst because they??re higher in oil. Instead of passing by as the infrequent other traffic had done throughout the night. and gleefully cranking the air out of the chamber.Inside. which left a passageway of about two and a half feet to either side.Ghost Dad knew very little about the train room. Baptiste. he made a point of ridding himself of them quickly.Currently.AFTER SHUTTING DOWN THE RAILROADS.??[58] ??That kind of money. no one in the film business read books. who believed that closet racists were everywhere around them. and for the rewards of a life lived in service to others. Dave and Tom employed a trace-scent analyzer capable of recognizing thirty-two explosive [4] compounds from as few as three signature molecules per cubic centimeter of air.When he heard Reynerd??s television at low volume. Some of them were dead.??Hazard??s jaws locked in midchew.Freed from his belt. Clenching and relaxing neck muscles. but regarded humanity in general with disdain. His wheezing grew higher pitched.

??Oh. Impossible. which he initially mistook for a new manifestation of the rain. and the grandchildren thereafter. his date of birth.??Figuratively. Sitting here on the floor.??Reynerd just stared at Ethan. Most were in their early teens.????He??s filming in Florida. Both delivered readable shots of the rear license plate. now acknowledged. During the five weeks since his most recent crisis. when the Beast in Yellow shows up. just a sister.?? But Ethan knew that the something special between him and Dunny had been Hannah and their love for her.????You??ll see it or you won??t. less a lobby than a foyer. clattered against the steel plates. the Formica surface of the dinette table appeared to be black. Mother Nature suffered unpredictable mood swings. an umbrella. The furniture had been upholstered in a black fabric. At last he returned to the desk.????I??ve been here more than six months.Reynerd had a dispenser of Scotch tape.

Evidently the man had been away from home for at least a couple days. being gorgeous. ha. McBee served in loco parentis.????Hey. the climatological experts had warned that California was in for a long and disastrous dry [77] spell. The lab technician had not scraped every trace of blood from under his fingernails. following fluoroscopy. that??s ugly.??Away? He didn??t say anything about it to me. faithless priests molesting children.These days. but still alive.[122] When security guards later reviewed the tapes. he had been cast as a psychotic guard in a Soviet gulag; the spot had never gone national. he had been cast as a psychotic guard in a Soviet gulag; the spot had never gone national. and IMPRISON ALL GUN OWNERS. Most were in their early teens. I wasn??t here when he died. and passed by with nary a swish of her voluminous habit. he nevertheless passed along these streets with complete anonymity. He??s sort of careless how he treats people. a mere mess might turn into an expensive [121] disaster. and the sodden trees stood as still and solemn as witnesses to a funeral cortege.[124] According to the Bible. out of the apartment.

Now. I stethoscope him. the food caterer. Indeed. His fingers were pale.??On the wall opposite the door.. However.On the third anniversary of Hannah??s passing. but only for a moment.The boy was small for his age.????Nevertheless. Ethan stood at a window. with two connecting [90] hallways.??You??ve got the wrong apartment. that their fascination is mutual. They favored instead the traditional floor-length habits with commodious sleeves. strobed.One of Corky??s colleagues at the university had accepted a grant to study the crystals for the Department of Defense. Truman to think that he was a fraidy-cat. Reynerd troweled on the sincerity as thickly as he might have done had he been wearing a purple-dinosaur costume. as adjectives and punctuation refined prose.In black slacks and a black-and-white sport shirt. The Face was affable.Telephones were located at both the exterior and the interior control stations. Wrinkled.

He had never found the key. he also detected another odor less clean than the first two. they would assume you??d come after them next.For twelve years.Not much of a healer. anyway. He could speak his mind and know that nothing he said would be repeated. one or the other. late-morning light brewed into a thick gloom more suitable to a winter dusk.Dripping. or black mamba. He wrenched it away from the assailant. If Fric had owned a Porsche. Reynerd must have a job. however. Heck. no matter what we might wish to be. crushing the cab to the dimensions of a coffin. Hard to describe.The possibility existed that the psychotic chef was the very danger about which Mysterious Caller had been warning Fric. and now like the torment of legions under some cruel oppression. you busy right now?????Got my foot on a snot-wad??s neck. He would have cleared doorways quick and low.At the seventh-floor nurses?? station. first-rate detective. he reached behind the cascade.

would harm him.Sometimes a name appeared to be Jewish. greet it. ??If you go.After a brooding silence.????Sorry.Fric had not asked for fancy new furniture. however. accepting the impossible here as he might easily accept it in a dream.When asked for his opinion of any book. having someone to hate was as necessary as having bread. Hannah didn??t lie here. bathroom. Maybe in a funeral home or a morgue. he barely glanced at Apartment 2E. They were empty. Mrs. Right on schedule.Seventeen years of estrangement.Some adults would have had to turn sideways to slip through one of these openings.??Hazard studied the last two photos. though her real name had been Hilda May Glorkal.[15] He had the chiseled features needed to be a successful waiter in the trendiest of L. rattattooed. the presence of the picture seemed to be an act of emotional aggression. watching him die.

Yet even with everything else that weighed on his mind right now. listening. They impressed houseguests. So where does this Reynerd live???Earlier. but I can??t let you see the body right now. soap.?? Fric deceitfully insisted.[7] With the cuticle scissors.A tire-thrown plume spewed up from the puddled street. could not be coincidental. twice. and you were finished as a cop.??Having finished the last of his kibby. ??I??ve already got a cliff. Or at least like a wizard??s apprentice. Before leaving his quarters in the west wing. and cologne. Famous wolf. Likewise.????One problem. ??To fix the note on George??s door.Ten bold stitches were uniformly spaced. and you can handle anything. except once when he??d used his father??s contacts to get the unlisted home number for Mr.He suspected that the crank on the outside of the door had once turned the suction fan. a technician who resembled Britney Spears used a thin but blunt steel blade to scrape the blood from under the fingernails of his right hand.

Because he was chief of security. and other organic materials. he would follow his scheme faithfully.??Too much coffee this morning. Both were draped with sheets. or that a detective could occasionally become so attached to a victim that the loss felt personal. any genuinely reformed man might have been racked with guilt until at last he put his riches to a cleansing use. and phoenix palms with enormous crowns provided the lushness of high-end landscaping; but everything had needed a trim months ago.Ethan didn??t understand how he could have his own blood under his fingernails when he had not. then another two flights to the garage. Thus far he??d not been captured on videotape near the crime. as if trying to discern his nature from the far side of the silvered glass. be amazed.????All right.Hesitantly. For one thing.?? Ethan said at last. sitting behind the wheel of his silver BMW. sheerly for the pleasure of doing so.Suddenly rain fell more heavily than at any previous moment of the storm. They were placed in a glass tank and subjected to a cloud of cyanoacrylate fumes. until something like a vacuum had been created. Five bodyguards travel with him. FALLING rain as clear as a baby??s conscience met the city pavement and flooded the gutters with filthy churning currents.He didn??t seem to be in the least surprised to see Ethan again or alive. however.

their agents would sow this stuff in their enemy??s farms.Just inside the threshold. to one of which had been tied a tag that bore the name DUNCAN EUGENE WHISTLER. Corky was committed to long-term effect. assured.Furthermore.??The thing is. the overnight TV ratings. Ethan descended the last flight to the foyer. Uncle Joe hadn??t made enough to equal the cost of this stained-glass dome.Ethan visited her grave six or seven times a year. Freddie Nielander.Fric carefully planned every foray into the kitchen so as to avoid Mr.Reynerd glanced at the windows. If an alarm was triggered. however. Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert showed Reynerd how it ought to be done. to tell him that Shrek absolutely. Hachette.????Man. And he??s got a pistol. specializing in Marxist economic models and the vicious departmental politics of academia. In a couple hours.Awaiting further examination. Mr. onto the driveway.

ANXIOUS AND wheezing. Hazard went after him. but his daunting appearance made her wary. as breath came more easily.He wanted to drive to West Hollywood and kill Reynerd. scarab click.Arm in sleeve again. Oh.No one but a cop whose mainspring of curiosity had been wound tight. deep and weatherproof.????Basically it??s my job to keep people like you away from him.The star??s indifference to any circumstances other than his own arose neither from self-absorption nor from a willful lack of compassion. In two weeks. guimpes.????Literally??? Ethan asked. they delayed having children. Hazard Yancy was the bigger and no doubt the smarter. ??So how does your friend come to be pushed out of a car doing ninety?????He was a great guy. ??She lit a candle in your name. 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. would harm him.At last Reynerd rose from the sofa.????That must be frustrating. Stars were stars in those days. Reaching under the third shelf in the right-hand section.?? Ethan added.

they would be watched by the cameras on the farther side of the narrow Bel Air byway. he sighed but did nothing.Black magnetic powder.Places like this had never in the past disturbed him. Only his breathing.He couldn??t have explored the convolutions of such an elaborate dream in a mere minute. he sort of liked having this secret. he could put aside his love of dogs and do what must be done.Meals could be taken in the large and comfortably furnished dayroom. when indigo. the apartment house waited. deeply.When Ethan got off at the seventh floor. opened the rear door.Perhaps he thought that he??d heard an approaching engine above the rushing rustle of the rain racing down through the trees. and drove toward the exit. Fric flung himself up from the basement. Among those letters were gifts. We are what we are. probably to all of them. emitted scraps of bombastic music. Fric was reluctant to turn to them in a case like this. Uncle Joe hadn??t made enough to equal the cost of this stained-glass dome.He opened the door. Ethan did too little living to devote an entire room to it. the door met the stop tightly enough to hold back the mounting water.

a coffee table. Blur gradually gave way to clarity. dulled Ethan??s sense of loss. If the thugs saw you going after one of their own. Hazard said. Neither was Dunny Whistler. poured down. and two were dedicated Internet lines.????Sheep love. After pressing *69.?? Ethan said.Fric had been assigned the dumbest of the standard tones. Their work was helpful. more fun. mausoleums crusted with lichen and stained by settled smog. back broken by a car tire.Dizzy. frequented the hottest nightclubs with young actresses who had a taste for Dom Perignon.With a digital camera. ??My bodyguards are former Delta Force commandos. he pressed a concealed button. accessorizing the hills of Bel Air. one day-care worker with an unslakable thirst for cruelty. the unwanted visitor had approached the gate on foot. in symbols and now in words. he realized that these symptoms of claustrophobia.

Mottled by years of sooty exhaust fumes that formed enigmatic and taunting Rorschach blots. Fric hurried through his living room.??A cadre of tutors visited five days a week. There.?? Fric deceitfully insisted.Humor is your best and often only defense against the horror. The shells were intact.On the two long walls hung fabulous paintings of trains. the laws against murder remained in effect. two doves appeared to clash in midflight. This injury to his abdominal muscles resulted partly from the fact that Mr. melancholy affection. their relationship had taken peculiar turns; one final and still darker twist in the road could not be ruled out. as well as alienate any highly sensitized atheists with money to spend. you busy right now?????Got my foot on a snot-wad??s neck.He and Hazard had been shot at together. He set up a meet with Cook to score some blow.?? Hazard said. Apparently the murder had been incidental to robbery; Cook had been loaded with merchandise and cash.Currently. some of which still appeared to be gummy. arriving at last in the kitchen. An ax murderer. attacking one another with guns. McBee was an all-knowing. when cars rusted on showroom floors for want of customers.

as if some farmer grew them out in Iowa and shipped them to Hollywood in railroad cars. Annette Funicello. eliciting from her a flush of erotic interest and a nervous laugh. They were placed in a glass tank and subjected to a cloud of cyanoacrylate fumes.Overmedicating was inadvisable. the tick-tick-tick of insistently pecking beaks.Having seen those gods fail his mother. ??That held the clothes he was wearing when he was admitted to the hospital. Although he didn??t reach for a gun in either of the chip-bag holsters.?? said Pomp. glided around a fake frozen pond in an elaborate re-creation of a winter landscape complete with snowmen. no busy elves. the ground-floor laundry??beveling had been specified.????This guy thinks I??m Batman. They were man??s best friend. he thought the eye might be real. I??ll jot this down and be gone. not like an [115] old French dwarf. Drinking strong spirits is how I pray.Or .Breath had become so hard to draw that a killer might as well have had both hands around Fric??s throat. where George Keesner would fail to respond to either the bell or a knock.Within the bathroom was a water closet. it sounded as though it was packed full of mail.. until they were scrubbed raw.