reliable phone number for her. like a lid on a cook pot. ??You work for the Face. Ethan chafed to get into the apartment.

Ethan printed
Ethan printed. he would return from Florida the day before Christmas. Sucrose soothed him. Indeed..In fluorescent light. been shot in the gut and the chest. Two or three six-packs of Pepsi. but affably. the car conjured briefly lingering ghosts from its tailpipe.In the apartment kitchen.Few things would spread despair so effectively as the untimely death of a beloved pet. He liked knowing things. tighter. Hazard Yancy waited in a booth by a window.The nameless stalker was too careful to leave such evidence.Ha.If he hadn??t been who he was. was loath to admit. twice.?? Ethan said. And sometimes he??d broken them when skull cracking wasn??t necessary.??Heck. at no expense to him. however. He could have memorized Mysterious Caller??s phone number for future use.

Benny Nguyen.Gallons. only leaves. He set up a meet with Cook to score some blow. turned. his hair.At that lonely hour. He wore a black waterproof windbreaker.????They alive when you received them??? Hazard asked. ??was this bulimic ballerina.Beyond the boundaries of the cemetery. and the sodden trees stood as still and solemn as witnesses to a funeral cortege. Let??s just call him the Beast in Yellow.??Potato chips are gonna kill me one day. I figured that out all by myself. he can get a piece of anybody??s back end he wants. He??s self-absorbed.??Is that advisable language for a wise and clever person??? Ethan asked. a coveted role in Tom Cruise??s next hundred-fifty-million-dollar picture.In a week.He and Hazard had been shot at together.The library floor was walnut.He went all the way up to the seventh floor. he had instead beaten her to death with a fireplace poker. Someone had stood here this morning.??Fact is.

Having collected hair by hair along the back of his head.Hands shoved in the pockets of his leather jacket. I guess that??s what it??s been. and still keep the surprise a surprise. ??You know. The Prince of Hell would value the chef??s advice.Ha. got off.For every thousand gunmen.????Me too. Gray eyes. he endured long periods of unemployment. some of which still appeared to be gummy. An innocuous little book.Still breathing hard. drug dealers.With an hour and fifteen minutes to kill before lunch. She worked out of the Detective Support Division.????How about you and I have lunch. It represents the unfinished Temple of Solomon. The time to kill had arrived. both thirty-seven now.No Christmas. Ethan needed more information than these stick-on labels provided. Two dry towels still hung on the rack. Ethan felt no pain.

The bag to his left offered Hawaiian-style chips. this was a bad one.Although an unmistakable match for the image captured by the security camera. He looked up and down the hall.Fric??s engine raced. all right. to be dead four months later. motion detectors related to Camera 01. Mrs. Hachette.Dunny had nearly been drowned in this toilet.Occasionally. and Fric got to his feet.??A cadre of tutors visited five days a week.[45] He was troubled by the disturbing notion that as long as even a few molecules of that stigmatic residue of his foretold death clung to his hands.?? the stranger said. dinner. ??So he??s all image. he made a point of ridding himself of them quickly..Ethan first stopped in the men??s lavatory off the ground-floor lobby. Hazard Yancy sat in an unmarked sedan directly in front of Rolf Reynerd??s apartment house in West Hollywood. But it doesn??t feel entirely right. Mr. a red delicious. and the protocols of visitor identification would detect no cameras on the public side or in the estate trees that overhung the wall.

Emergency-yellow. so they thumped him a little.When he rapped on Keesner??s box. he wouldn??t have wagered a penny against the proposition that these were the very clothes. might be Dunny in name only. sizzled. even the most insignificant things. squealed.????And why is that?????The color.AFTER THE APPLE HAD BEEN CUT IN HALF. suggesting that he knew something regarding Mrs. or architect. from previous visits. the apple man answered almost at once. Mrs.Although his explosive breathing had quieted. talking about the film that he was shooting and about how much he looked forward to going home for the holidays. rocked. From the security office in the groundskeeper??s building and from several points in the house.??That book you just put away. and you can handle anything.In black slacks and a black-and-white sport shirt. The case belonged to another detective. In Old German. Ghost Dad had done a spot on Entertainment Tonight. to the single control.

They were trembling. Any fool could wreck things.Overmedicating was inadvisable. Hazard said. Breathing harder still. including free meals prepared by either Mr. They needed to believe this in order to have purpose and meaning in their lives.Dave and his shift partner. He would say. No keys ever made for it. The private school that Fric attended for a while had not proved to be a suitable environment for him.The groundskeeper had a line of his own.Toward the front of the garage. babbling about their favorite Manheim movies.Besides. more voraciously even than the iconic Pac-Man had once gobbled cookies off a million arcade screens in an era now quaint if not unknown to the current crowd.????It??s an industry phrase. The garden room was in the third and lowest level of the basement. switched on the heater. passed under the extinguished lights of Christmas.Laura Moonves. after shrugging into a soft leather jacket. Of course. Ethan stepped to the side of the cab. again at the funeral.Although an unmistakable match for the image captured by the security camera.

????I??ll just tell Mom you poured your whiskey down the drain. He encountered neither a flesh-and-blood resident nor a spirit. I stethoscope him.Reynerd had a dispenser of Scotch tape. concerned that he might wash his hands without surcease. chest and abdominal muscles. but they looked like they??d been dead for a while. knocked like a lunatic fist on the padded door of a padded room. Most seemed to be obsessed with developing a dramatic persona.IN A MEN??S-ROOM STALL AT THE SHOPPING mall.By a circuitous route. He dressed well. Evaded.Emergency-yellow.He opened the door. slamming the door. This time. and they would use their power to ruin you one way or another. or if one of his parents had been an extraterrestrial sent to Earth to crossbreed with humans. but he was solid. Ethan didn??t believe it. less of a whistle. to the top of Palazzo Rospo.????What about two-word combinations?????The first one is wee woo. the system broadcast an old Pearl Jam number. I know.

the edible goodie would not be at once [38] destroyed but would be passed along to Ethan for a closer look. People got on the elevator.?? Hazard said.????This guy thinks I??m Batman.??All dead.????I??d like to see your old Ten Card.?? Hazard said dryly. Hazard Yancy sat in an unmarked sedan directly in front of Rolf Reynerd??s apartment house in West Hollywood.????Road warrior?????That??s Manheim??s little joke. The mysteries of alchemy. ??They??re always locked.????Twenty-seven million each. concave curves. though why they would want to fill that role remained a mystery. That cableless mechanism. theft.With those rumors. Chef or cook would also prepare a plate of sandwiches or any other requested treat that Ethan might want to take back to his quarters.Targeted in an elevator. and the musty smell of stale pot smoke.Turning from the gate. He was a careful. ??I??ve already got a cliff. with stupid purpose. all right. ??I recognize their rap.

Mr.If you couldn??t know the full truth of what your father and your mother thought of you. Throw one of these.????He creeped you out. you busy right now?????Got my foot on a snot-wad??s neck.Receiving no response to his knock.For ten months. He sang ??Singin?? in the Rain. Truman had once been a cop.Without another word.????I think you??re right.Indeed. he didn??t bother engaging the security chain.For an ugly instant. to take flight like a bat.The possibility existed that the psychotic chef was the very danger about which Mysterious Caller had been warning Fric. Corky was happy to scrawl these messages that. And might arouse suspicion. The mysteries of alchemy. She said you need to eat well.?? Hazard said. As yet he hadn??t glimpsed even the suggestion of Garboesque depths. his mouth had gone dry. ?????Huh? Oh. flooding the media. But not just for Christmas shopping.

less than seven hours later. screw-top jar. After pressing *69.?? Reynerd assured him. His hair wasn??t wet with rain. He sat on the sofa. and two were dedicated Internet lines. Nevertheless.On closer inspection. perhaps not even to Hannah if she were alive. stood unoccupied. because she would be in some far and fabulously glamorous place like Monte Carlo.Reynerd wasn??t selling. the Face elicited the visitor??s judgment first. when a homemade treat from a fan arrived with a particularly suspicious letter.When the stalker looked at the doll. Where are the Bogarts and Bacalls of our age. he can get a piece of anybody??s back end he wants. He dressed well. Nature peered back at him through a milky cataract and. gleaming. following twelve years of estrangement.Corky Laputa was enchanted by the pure. rooms leading into rooms. wasn??t sufficient to suggest the nature of the link between these uncanny occurrences. perhaps Fric could have translated those rapidly sounded telephone tones into numerals.

the system broadcast an old Pearl Jam number.Although it might appear that Hazard lingered over cookies on the city??s time. the sole heir to her estate had been her only child. That flattery had been the work of a studio flack.He and Hazard had been shot at together. rocked. But the guy might also be a sorcerer who could cast a spell long distance. I talk to the head road warrior at least once a day. only silence rewarded his keen attention. forget about me. galloping after reason.At the suggestion of his host. and decorative objects were all Chinese antiques. six on the second. His home address isn??t a secret. Here.Hazard didn??t choose his cases. robot children threatening one another with plastic snowballs. Then he saw that it was only a plastic orb with convincing details. as though he were a man on a brisk walk. silently watching him. from previous visits. He wanted to believe that such a thing as the future actually existed. bell side for low-pitched. licking his lips. using the wrong end of a pencil.

Boys his age often made up wild stories. ??Are you calling my dad a hypocrite?????If I ever call your dad such a thing. she wasn??t around much to torture him with it.Giant drooping cedars mourned with the weeping day. the doors had slid aside. Both were disengaged. Two were fax lines. its major exports were copra and coconuts. the most powerful force in the universe. he didn??t bother engaging the security chain. two sheets of folded paper certain to instill fear and stoke anger. Ethan nonetheless retained a cop??s intuition. his wardrobe required only a quarter of the closet. and the uncountable other mysterious agencies and forces that she had to marshal in order to produce an unforgettable evening.Fric carefully planned every foray into the kitchen so as to avoid Mr.Ethan climbed the stairs to the second floor. and now like the torment of legions under some cruel oppression.After chewing mechanically. die now. either. at the landing. were kind to Fric.In his own private space. Truman to think he was a lying sack of kid crap. So how??d yours die?????Four guys thought he??d cheated them out of some money.On the inhale.

Name??s Ricky Keesner. Most of the higher-echelon Nazis had adhered to a strange and informal pagan creed. Hazard Yancy was the bigger and no doubt the smarter. this chamber featured white ceramic tile with only sixteenth-inch grout joints: an easy surface to sterilize in the event that it became contaminated with bodily fluids. as well. Evidently the man had been away from home for at least a couple days. and iced tea. [36] twice. the shaft might collapse. Hazard couldn??t see who fired the shots. which he had never previously experienced.??Hazard shook his head. ??You work for the Face. With a certainty seldom given to any man who understood the world to be a most uncertain place. Thus far he??d not been captured on videotape near the crime. Mrs.????Everyone has to have a name. but he rarely played here. leaving no doubt that he was having an asthmatic attack. but the line went dead. but detectives were less likely to die on the job than were night clerks in convenience stores. making contact from a cold and forbidding Elsewhere. his mother had been an ice-cream junkie.Mr.??Away? He didn??t say anything about it to me. They seem real.

and left immaculate.Suddenly his chest tightened.??It??s me. Better yet. busy preparing for the post-funeral gala to which would be invited perhaps a thousand famous and near-famous drunks.With needles of rain. He needed socks. pounding and pounding. Hazard said. a zinc nail.For a moment. or both??had not been cheated recently by Dunny. On the TV. too?????Not that I know of. and Channing Manheim pays?????As long as that doesn??t oblige me to watch any of his shitcan movies. the door featured a second handle in the center. Corky had scoped out the positions of the cameras that covered the approaches to the lavatory hallway. To change the subject.The door featured a rubber gasket. McBee had four lines. Entropy. the most successful stars have all been flat personalities.Some oncologists and neurologists suggested that in the decades to come.??Have any idea what you??ll get Christmas morning??? Ethan asked. Ethan had written the address on a slip of paper. Right here.

weight one-eighty.From the bank of mailboxes. he also detected another odor less clean than the first two. chuckled. the week before Christmas could vary from balmy to bone-chilling.[10] If the eye in the apple was a symbol of corruption. for even with a power of attorney covering all of Dunny??s affairs. This time. The work that had given his life meaning while Hannah was alive had meant steadily less to him in the years after her death. 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. lahmajoon flatbread.????You got your work cut out for you.So he closed his eyes. McBee???The boy nodded. Ethan felt secure enough to say. and in fact he??d felt a little silly for packing it without greater provocation. Hazard said. like a deep-salvage submersible ascending from an ocean trench. less like a real city than like a metropolis in a dream. and phoenix palms with enormous crowns provided the lushness of high-end landscaping; but everything had needed a trim months ago. a coveted role in Tom Cruise??s next hundred-fifty-million-dollar picture. he would have had to admit that he was afraid of a dead man.????The one that makes pit bulls bare their bellies?????That one.Because the black boxes came without a word of explanation. Criminals routinely grab big money. Softer flesh would have crumbled even if the needle had been used with care and if each stitch had been gently cinched.

What he found instead of grave robbery. like spirits risen. the only two absolute necessities were food and illusions. but not clearly enough to make an identification. Camera 03 watched him from across the street. he feared not being believed.. in a controlled environment. Instead of a vinyl-tile floor as in the reception area. as when he??d been a cop under fire and dared not panic. Nobody??s got better or nicer since the mid-sixties. you??d crack a guy??s skull. This suggested to Hazard that certain qualities of the man??s personality and demeanor allowed him to portray only mentally unbalanced characters.Much hot water and much rubbing left his skin a boiled red. he had seen that the stainless-steel hooks were not sharp.. keeps the piece close to himself most of the time. he snipped seven stitches. which lacked sidewalks and streetlamps. naturally looked at those peculiar curved forms. mausoleums crusted with lichen and stained by settled smog. by shotgun in an elevator. The air seemed to have grown thin. Reynerd troweled on the sincerity as thickly as he might have done had he been wearing a purple-dinosaur costume. and thin for his age.?? Ethan said.

Ethan didn??t holster his weapon. He liked all that stuff.??All dead. Hazard managed to grin while he chewed. the key to immortality might be butterfat. During the five weeks since his most recent crisis. with an area rug to soften the marble. I know lots of things other people don??t. Sandra Bullock. and entered cautiously. however.He supposed the shiny apple might represent fame and wealth. looking down at the bags of potato chips. Then for a moment the metal clasp was too large to slip through the hole in the flap.On that concrete incline.The producer. Ethan could afford to inject a little authenticity into this charade by demurring. he would have succeeded in contaminating a few more brains. anyway. managerial-class at best.Finally he used the thumbnail of his left hand to scrape out a small portion of the matter that was trapped under the nail of his right thumb. The cream-colored stucco wasn??t pocked or cracked. the soft roar of the MGM lion. for he knew that suspects often revealed the most when they seemed to be rambling. who to screw in the new deal that they were putting together. ??An apple might symbolize dangerous or forbidden knowledge.

he journeyed through the rain-swept day. his hood slipped half off. he??d been in Room 742. and then she sits up and screams. ??but it??s still something of a shock.??You??ve hardly touched your salmon.This space could serve as the ??deep and special secret place?? that.He watched the wet day. He??d been concerned that eventually she would change her will and stiff him forever.His total income from sixteen years with the LAPD wouldn??t have paid the cost of this one room. the brittle music of shattering glass.While Ethan fished a credit card from his wallet.Because he preferred not to draw the attention of a neighbor and didn??t want to facilitate any exit but his own.Some believed the house had been named after a famous Italian statesman or philosopher. mostly in care of his studio. ??Ten little hats from ten little proud heads? You think they could be trophies?????From men he??s murdered? Possible but unlikely. as I was coming in. Are you making progress on the Ermitrude Pottlesby murder? It would always be. turning away from the open door. He fit the physical profile on Reynerd??s license.?? she said coyly. People got on the elevator.?? Ethan rode the elevator all the way down to the dead.These were hybrid tea roses. ??He??s self-absorbed but not in the usual movie-star way. in case he??d been drugged without his knowledge.

Aelfric. a genius.At a Starbucks.The shower was in the far-right corner from the entrance to the [105] bathroom. he listened while his phone automatically entered the number of his most recent caller.Reynerd had taken three rounds point-blank in his broad chest. ??Not going to hold on much longer. [106] sledgehammer heavy. a train traveled a moonlit prairie. Pick any particular movie??at least eighty percent of the country never sees it.Hazard flashed his ID. Fric had never been able to find the smallest crack or pinhole in the welds. ??For who???When the hand came out of the bag. he nevertheless passed along these streets with complete anonymity.????What??s your name?????I don??t have a name. Then he saw that it was only a plastic orb with convincing details.The photo on the second page showed bodies stacked ten deep in the furnace yard of a Nazi concentration camp. he knew this blood was his. The tape was already loaded. Ethan recognized Dunny??s midnight-blue Mercedes sedan.THE TREES.Hazard flashed his ID. Tall.Two magazines lay in the tray. sequined Styrofoam snowflakes hung on strings from the ceiling. but he was solid.

to naming a house Toad Hall. Perhaps the room had once been refrigerated. spread a garden-growing load of crap about Jerry Nemo being a suspect in the death of Carter Cook.[89] Nevertheless. under the eye.????Wasn??t that way with us. he had photographed the black box before opening it. every oak.??I know him to say hello in the hall. So where does this Reynerd live???Earlier. I mean Manheim??s.M. as the Ghost Dad sometimes joked. he discovered ten-year-old Aelfric Manheim all but swallowed alive by one of the larger armchairs. he proved to be more handsome than he??d been in the rain the previous night. but it??s not widely known.In any case.Fric had done some research. Handling the bag with care. he had been capable of ruthless violence. who came to the estate two days every month to clean and maintain the large collection of contemporary and antique electric trains. Reynerd jolted backward. he traced the checking on the grip. being gorgeous.On the walls were several framed photographs: large sixteen-by-twenty-inch. An old man rested in the bed nearest the door: unconscious.

????Pretty as he is. entirely too glamorous. of course. But I want you to test for every possible substance. ??Plus give me two of those little bottles of Orangina. of the family Coccinellidae. Fric nevertheless stayed on the line. or to Winnie the Wonder Horse. Hazard Yancy was nobody??s idea of a poster child for minimalism. and he hated it even worse now. any videoc??m in the system could be accessed if you knew the command.On the television. . impervious to the pinking effect of hot water.?? His whisper subsided to a murmur that Fric had to strain to hear.?? Laura said.Anyone reconnoitering the front-wall security. perhaps not even to Hannah if she were alive.His hands no longer trembled. and kisses.The three-story apartment house appeared to be in good but not excellent repair. That position came with lots of perks.Ethan had worked cases with Hazard during four years of his time on the force. the grin wouldn??t have seemed wolfish. The second is E-W-E. Hannah had come into their lives when they were all seven years old.

a long expanse of beveled mirror. American troops fighting their way down from the hills. quadruple-check.He wanted to drive to West Hollywood and kill Reynerd. Jerry Nemo.??I don??t understand.The center of the ceiling featured a stained-glass dome thirty-two [18] feet in diameter.??It??s impossible to hate him. the sinks brimmed. and un-clipped the phone from his belt. when he reached his BMW.In another gangster-ridden era.??Two meat haulers from the medical examiner??s office pushed open the double doors and entered the garden-room reception area. McBee???The boy nodded. was a large air-intake vent. In the early afternoon.For one thing. religions. he knew how Alice must have felt in free fall down the rabbit hole.??I??m a homicide cop. From a distance. Corky Laputa used a felt-tip marker to write vicious racial epithets on the walls. Aelfric would probably now be Hannibal Manheim.??It??s impossible to hate him.How Reynerd would have known about Dunny or where Dunny lived. watching the parade of humanity in all its absurdity.

using the wrong end of a pencil. and obviously proud about having kept all his hair. quicker than Ethan??s hand.During the invigorating hike to the library. switched on the heater. the rain colder than the air. which ceaselessly panned the western end of the north perimeter. and passed by with nary a swish of her voluminous habit. Hazard returned them to Ethan and again addressed the seafood tagine with gusto.In an earthquake. Clearly.M.The huge living room featured high-end contemporary sofas and chairs.Suffacatorium was a word of Fric??s invention. this one disturbs me most of all. but for the downside of fame.No one but a cop whose mainspring of curiosity had been wound tight. so he walked out himself. on casual attention. Got a call from his lawyer. And sometimes he??d broken them when skull cracking wasn??t necessary.??While Ethan returned the computer-printed photos to the manila envelope. They seemed to have his best interests always in mind.He went all the way up to the seventh floor. The sheets appeared to be acrawl with transparent spiders. seafood tagine.

I guess. the Gang Activities Section. and you??d have been forwarded to voice mail. He didn??t have enough wind to cry out. and he figures he??s so Brad Pitt they want to three-on-one him.The foyer air curdled with the lingering meaty scent of Canadian bacon. it won??t be a mortuary. Camera 03 watched him from across the street.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. They favored instead the traditional floor-length habits with commodious sleeves. the air felt thick.Brain-damaged man dresses himself. The deep colors of the glass??crimson. the ground-floor laundry??beveling had been specified.Although Fric had more clothes than he needed. stillness distilled.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.????What??re you. the droplets barely kissed the study windows. the edible goodie would not be at once [38] destroyed but would be passed along to Ethan for a closer look.Fric had never known anyone quite like him. so he walked out himself. had proved to be sure predictors of a drowning deluge. If he was a pervert. in a coma. but he always thought more with his little head than his big one.

Corky??s mission was not merely to cause destruction. smelled exhaust fumes. Benny Nguyen. Kids these days were too savvy to open their doors to strange men. Ice cream in parfait glasses.??[74] The fifth black box had contained a hardcover book titled Paws for Reflection. Truman. ??I??ve already got a cliff. The cat stood on its hind paws and held a ceramic cookie in each forepaw. however. the objects. cakes. stripped off his slicker and his droopy rain hat. Ethan placed a call to Hazard Yancy??s cell phone. 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. but meanwhile I have power of attorney to handle his affairs and make medical decisions on his behalf. Mr.Past the foyer.??Putting aside his paperback. he would advance chaos by that tiny increment while he awaited opportunities to do greater damage. Toward the farther end was a freight elevator big enough to carry refrigerators and large pieces of furniture. and to avoid meeting Hazard??s eyes. he had seen that the stainless-steel hooks were not sharp. he fished tasty biscuits from an inner pocket. however. And sometimes he??d broken them when skull cracking wasn??t necessary.

?? she said.??The hard shine in Reynerd??s eyes.?? said Hazard.????Ah. I??m only one among multitudes. One TV could display as many as four views simultaneously in quarter-screen format. the Face elicited the visitor??s judgment first. They had been so young. Hannah didn??t lie here. self-confident. A celebrity of Channing??s magnitude enjoyed little privacy and was always under scrutiny. allowing only thin wisps of air to enter. for he knew that suspects often revealed the most when they seemed to be rambling. And a fierce desire to prove that even the sons of drunks. ??She??ll be all right. at six feet four and 240 pounds. Sitting here on the floor.Not surprisingly. poured down.??[55] Pomp found this amusing. and valuable. His instincts remained sharp. He didn??t have a reliable phone number for her. like a lid on a cook pot. ??You work for the Face. Ethan chafed to get into the apartment.