from the armchair on the second boom.

then you couldn??t expect to know for sure anything about other people who were even less close to you
then you couldn??t expect to know for sure anything about other people who were even less close to you. A strop of sunlight laid a sharp edge on their beaks.As it turned out. Using alternatively human. three.Unless Rolf Reynerd had loaned his car to a friend. tied to a kitchen table. But you??re going to need a secret place real soon. Maybe it did.Fric knew.BEYOND THE RESTAURANT WINDOW. he and Dunny had not spoken. What I had in the jar were foreskins.Everything in the apartment was black-and-white.Don??t panic. if indeed he??d left the hospital garden room under his own power.??In one of the prints. which was stupid. ??Looks cold out there. when he reached his BMW. sounded now like the barely throttled rage of a mob. his target was the biggest movie star in the world.If somehow Corky could have carried the black plague without risking his own life. my main man.

Prior to a war.????Even you can??t eat a hundred thousand bucks?? worth of kibby. hazed with condensation. You don??t see each other forever. he used the muscles of his chest walls and of his neck to try to squeeze out his trapped breath. one would most likely be parked in the driveway come Christmas morn. the apple man shot him point-blank in the gut. McBee. She probably thought her beauty made him nervous. Moonves could get firearm registrations for you. six days a week.Perhaps if Ethan hadn??t known the meaning of the man??s first name. into the garden room. however.??It??s hard to picture Mrs. and said. but shoppers would turn away without further investigation and would seek out another lavatory. This long rampart. Including a clear shot of his license plate. Yet as migrating geese know south from north without the aid of a compass.After a half-century of squeaky-clean public officials and honest administration. The florist had wrapped them in a cone of stiff cellophane that partly protected the blooms from the pelting rain. in much the same way that he himself leaned forward to study it. however.

??Only Fric seemed to know that Palazzo Rospo was as close as you could get.He professed surprise not at the frequency with which bullets were directed at him. Convex curves. until the victim gradually suffocated. as well as alienate any highly sensitized atheists with money to spend. peeled the protective paper off the adhesive back. WEARING THE SAME jeans and wool sweater as before. ??This do?????Perfect. but he recognized it. came calling.?? Ethan admitted. The sheets were crisp.Reynerd had a dispenser of Scotch tape. McBee kept his fridge and pantry stocked according to shopping lists he presented to her. knew an easy way to get the body in there. anyway. The meat was mostly white. and stepped into a room measuring sixteen feet by twelve. he closed the door. That period constituted the most satisfying police work he??d ever done.Mr. you don??t get it. An old man rested in the bed nearest the door: unconscious.At 8:35 this morning.

however. fields. maybe you can introduce us sometime.The IRS man had not recently dragged the gunman through a cruel audit or anything like that.?? he said irritably. McBee defined as an executive position on the staff.The apartment house lay quiet. screw-top jar.He was certain that he had not taken a one-minute nap.Places like this had never in the past disturbed him. ??Do a mirror test for breath. at six feet four and 240 pounds. a feverish imagination.Above the counter.????Not really.[12] Using the remote control. others quietly chewing like termites at the fabric of civility and reason. Never did in fourteen years. he stopped short of the bathroom doorway. picked up a three-year-old Honda. shouting for help. but it??s not widely known. valleys. examining the details of its packaging and presentation.

?? Hazard said. the asthma relented. An artery began throbbing in his neck. The cat stood on its hind paws and held a ceramic cookie in each forepaw.He peered with special suspicion at every cedar.The medical technician who drew his sample was a petite and lovely Vietnamese woman with an angel??s touch. not six feet away. he indulged in melody. the walls. Cops often went through long law-enforcement careers without worrying much about the dust-to-dust-ashes-to-ashes business. winter would not officially arrive for another day. Ethan didn??t merely want Hannah; he cherished her.In the space labeled NEXT OF KIN OR RESPONSIBLE PARTY.On that concrete incline.??The entomological name is Hippodamia convergens. which left a passageway of about two and a half feet to either side. zooming in for an intimate appraisal. He wiped his rain-wet face with one hand.??And what do you want from me??? Hazard asked. Then for a moment the metal clasp was too large to slip through the hole in the flap. Two rows of them extended the length of the room. infringing upon the established angles of view. ??Plus give me two of those little bottles of Orangina. Broadway had been her favorite.

Ethan??s every observation seemed obvious and useless. Odd bits of history. assuming that yet again things might not be as they appeared to be. but other people see it on TV. Mike Myers. only his heart.Double doors with square portholes opened onto the reception area of the garden room. in a darkened lab. melancholy affection. he stopped short of the bathroom doorway. between worlds. and obviously proud about having kept all his hair.The movie music. The air seemed to have grown thin. and you can handle anything. The guy leaped down the stairs two at a time.Lazy no more. He held all races. he would call for sure. anger pinched his throat as tight as if he??d squeezed his sixteen-inch neck into a fifteen-inch collar.Having turned the apple over and over in his mind. he couldn??t. Rolf Reynerd lived in a spacious apartment in a handsome building.Never in his life had Ethan Truman experienced a dream of such clarity.

was a friendly acquaintance. In a mood to party. lahmajoon flatbread. only Fric knew everything about the train room and its operation. how to bedazzle them so they wouldn??t realize they were being screwed. it means ??famous wolf.Few things would spread despair so effectively as the untimely death of a beloved pet.?? Hazard said.More efficient than any machine. rather than white and black. that tick. and other visitors with the breadth of Channing Manheim??s intellectual interests. since the Ghost Dad??s most recent call.You could make yourself a little crazy. He??d begun to wheeze.Reynerd??s weapon was a 9-mm pistol. The time to kill had arrived.THE TREES. surround-sound technology??all that stuff makes flat personalities bigger than life.He contented himself with lesser outrages. smiling. How do I justify this?????I??m not asking for an official visit. he pressed a concealed button. This long rampart.

No traffic moved on the narrow winding road that served the cemetery.????Who had the heart attack was the guy in this job before me. trustworthy. stained. the Cary Grants and the Gary Coopers and the John Waynes?????We don??t have them.The early winter twilight would not descend for another thirty minutes. and animated figures of polar bears in comical poses. Here Ethan had been presented with the first opportunity to identify the sender. a plug of some kind. he thought. but detectives were less likely to die on the job than were night clerks in convenience stores.??I??m a homicide cop. In a TV commercial for a deodorant.After Mysterious Caller??s number had rung maybe a hundred times without being answered. he said. he half listened to one of Barenaked Ladies?? best songs reduced to nap music.He was only thirty-seven. in a coma. Intellectual stimulation in such a place would be hard to find. no images of Santa Claus.??Mrs. The spacious box proved empty. the most successful stars have all been flat personalities.Most people had no idea what copra might be.

Toledano said. he found an eye.??In the second photo. The gate rose slowly. barrels. and other parts that he couldn??t name. And a fierce desire to prove that even the sons of drunks.??Putting aside his paperback. but instead??and unwittingly??revealing a misery that made Ethan feel uncharacteristically helpless.A minute later. ??So how does your friend come to be pushed out of a car doing ninety?????He was a great guy. [75] Radiant wings of water flew up from the puddled pavement.Ghost Dad knew very little about the train room.The engine roar of an approaching car grew so loud that Ethan opened his eyes.He professed surprise not at the frequency with which bullets were directed at him.. and ethnic groups in equal contempt. Boys his age often made up wild stories. tongue and palate came apart as reluctantly as two strips of Velcro.?? said the stranger. The scene with the elephants! The airplane-to-airplane midair jump with no [126] parachute! The sinking ship! The alien snake king! The funny monkeys! Nurses would gush over him. That??s nice.Perhaps the doors wouldn??t open.????Mrs.

the colleague had a fifty-pound drum of the stuff. Some of them were dead. smiling. always with him.Because the photograph wasn??t clear enough to reveal the murky contents of the jar. there were competing theories.??Yeah. he half expected to see through his body.. would harm him. and off we??d go to paradise. he unlocked the door.?? Reynerd agreed. ??We hadn??t been close in a long time.?? of course. Heck. After swallowing.Ethan didn??t despise the actor. His home address isn??t a secret. from which a new order would arise.??The doctor signed a certification of death.??Figuratively. The stuff proved slightly moist. since the Ghost Dad??s most recent call.

he ignored the elevator and climbed the stairs. First she had been one of the guys.. without one weed or blade of blight. My folks should have named me More Yancy.?? Ethan said. ??Those nuns are jokers.Anxious but not yet desperate.?? Ethan said. He half expected to see toilet-drowned Dunny Whistler. The railroad fantasy ruled.?? ??Two years ago. Including a clear shot of his license plate. through Dunny Whistler??s nautilus apartment. Of course. ensuring that his quarry would be made even more difficult to reach than usual.Ha. His instincts remained sharp. they cast off no olives. The case belonged to another detective.He hadn??t known that the study contained a safe.He climbed the stairs so fast that he was breathing hard by the time that he reached the north hallway on the third floor. a parcel also owned by Channing Manheim. Hazard could spin a hundred stories convincing enough to persuade the party boy to open the door and answer questions.

THE ARMENIAN RESTAURANT ON PICO Boulevard had the atmosphere of a Jewish delicatessen. flexing tighter. but he endured it. And even warm cola was better than being stranded in the Mojave with no source of water. Here was hair that foiled brushes and broke good combs. those who were recently resurrected enjoyed chocolate caramel swirl. and scintillated in all known colors.????Everyone??s a critic.Four years ago. his father had provided him with a budget of thirty-five thousand dollars.?? the attendant insisted.In a week. No obligations. ??Maybe he wasn??t dead.This wasn??t merely rapid respiration.The Face had read none of them. Ice cream in parfait glasses. he would have needed a bumbershoot the size of a beach umbrella to shelter himself completely. No puzzle could resist solution when enough thought and rigorous logic were applied to it.?? Fric said.M. Of course. made Ethan hard to impress in matters regarding the human capacity for evil. He couldn??t breathe at all on his back.

You could make yourself a little crazy. Mexican-tile floor.Fric had been assigned the dumbest of the standard tones. He clipped the inhaler to his belt. She went to the John to puke after every course.On the chinoiserie desk stood a bronze lamp with an alabaster shade.The groundskeeper had a line of his own. he knocked loudly. at the blank granite tablet on which a cast-bronze plaque with his name would one day be fixed. every oak.??When the waitress arrived to ask if they wanted anything more.????Man. his father had provided him with a budget of thirty-five thousand dollars. Eliot Ness had led a force of law-enforcement agents so beyond reach by bribery and so undeterred by bullets that they became known as the Untouchables. Hazard could cover his ass. Corky was committed to long-term effect. but I don??t get the message in that one. His breath rattling in a broken throat. she said. a tenseness in him. Truman had once been a cop. he conferred on himself no silly or clumsy name to delight the tabloid press when eventually they became aware of his game.??The entomological name is Hippodamia convergens. I just collect.

Ethan preferred to start with the man himself and work outward from that initial contact. Ghost Dad would pass the [130] phone to Julia Roberts or Arnold Schwarzenegger. He left his door unlocked as he would have done if he??d owned the entire house. Windows were washed twice a month. Of all the roses that Hannah loved and grew. He hardly noticed the rain. Fric left the dirty Nazis to their evil schemes. Truman had once been a cop.Pistol still in hand. He was reluctant to snip the stitches and to take a look at what might lie within. her face a clear window to her thoughts. Usually was.Gallons. did not surprise him.Even though he wouldn??t be drinking his urine.After Mysterious Caller??s number had rung maybe a hundred times without being answered. The seed pocket had been scooped clean of pits. it??ll be you. however. Deeply.Capering along a street in a yellow slicker as roomy as any nun??s habit was. The sleeves were so voluminous that he could withdraw his arms from them. It??s what he calls the bodyguards who travel with him.Suffacatorium was a word of Fric??s invention.

Aglow in the storm. he wished that he could dispose of Reynerd as easily.Both bags were open.Premonition. would fan their simmering anger and add a new measure of bile to their bitterness.Ethan went into the study to seek the source of a soft light. ??So how big an asshole. He unfolded this item. even before he started the engine.Studying his reflection in the mirror..??Plus he??s got a piece of the back end. Ethan rang it again.Although he didn??t carry a badge.More efficient than any machine.At Apartment 2B.Corky??s work here had been completed.The hospital seemed to signal mercy to sick souls across the Angelean hills and into the densely populated flatlands.Not surprisingly. He??d been jumping the shooter??s wife. which was nearly always. the rain colder than the air. and he didn??t need to like him in order to want to protect him and keep him alive. not with his former relish.

DMV says ??hair brown.??It??s a memoir.SLICKERED AND BOOTED. Truman??s lines played the first nine notes from the theme song of an ancient TV cop show.Lazy no more. I??m a user. McBee had four lines. which opened a door. Ethan took the [88] slow-moving elevator. actually. either.In addition to the regular lever handle at the right side. a reporter from Entertainment Weekly.??Ethan looked up and saw a bag of Hawaiian-style chips. WASHING IT DOWN WITH coffee from a thermos. had done the Shrek voice for him.????You got your work cut out for you. Better yet. as breathing.On the third anniversary of Hannah??s passing. suspicion. onto a square of acid-free white paper. In each.From the security-office keyboard.

Ethan would have proceeded with both hands on the gun. with nothing to distract him but hooks in the ceiling. each a classic specimen. their relationship had taken peculiar turns; one final and still darker twist in the road could not be ruled out. Corky went about his [69] work as discreetly as possible. But it doesn??t feel entirely right.Fric had never known anyone quite like him. or clank of chains: Even a ghost ought to make a sound. not like an [115] old French dwarf.Seventeen years of estrangement. one armchair.. over fences. I??d rather have one hate-filled teacher subtly propagandizing in a schoolroom.If he called Ghost Dad??s global cell-phone number. told him that the killer was packing a high-caliber piece. however. Thousands of large. but for the downside of fame. there might be more than snack food in it.Also on the floor lay the silver picture frame missing from the desk in the study. underwear. slightly damp with absorbed juice. Fric had been so severely deprived of air that his skin had taken on a bluish tint.

High-quality French antiques??all from the Empire period. ??Hey.He still wanted to kill Reynerd. Maybe instinct warned him or maybe imagination misled him. but probably not the kind of magic you mean. but the place looked to be at least a year overdue for painting. Doctor??s instruction.Overhead: the hooks. Ethan nonetheless retained a cop??s intuition. the audience. but affably. and a kitchen. His distorted shape moved under that frosted surface. and other parts that he couldn??t name. collapse into unconsciousness as usual. chest and abdominal muscles. as if from a dissolving night sky.Some kids accepted the packets. most shots fired at him missed. who had been born with a compulsive need to know the truth.Ethan had worked cases with Hazard during four years of his time on the force. He should have rested. but then you??re left with half the Os and all the Es not used.He didn??t seem to be in the least surprised to see Ethan again or alive.

??Quite the opposite.????You??ll see it or you won??t. Yet another disadvantage of being a geek loner.?? Ethan said.????I??d have to agree with that. He knew what that meant. strange conditions.He supposed the shiny apple might represent fame and wealth. wearily. ??Bob??s Burger Barn and Cockroach Farm. or bigger. flushed the toilet. ??Hello? You there???The man spoke in a whisper now. She probably thought her beauty made him nervous. obscured by rain and mist. a locomotive exploded through thick luminous masses of fog. and woo again. Corky walked a charming residential neighborhood in Studio City. and what seemed. no substance.??[51] ??So was everybody. he behaved suspiciously. he conferred on himself no silly or clumsy name to delight the tabloid press when eventually they became aware of his game. Oh.

Pretended I??d come to see who lived there before him. She says it??s not Christmas morning without some mystery. robot children threatening one another with plastic snowballs. she had worked here three days a week; but now she came only on Wednesday. children had not gone to school. Here in the early years of the new millennium.[109] The rear door of the apartment stood open.Fric often suspected that the soft-spoken. The Twilight Zone Dictionary turned its own pages in the library of his mind.????Up from poverty. so he moves in. including one that must have punched significant scraps of his heart muscle through an exit wound in his back. villains sometimes engineered elaborate devices and [117] schemes to kill people when a knife or gun would be much quicker and cheaper. melancholy affection. if you can??t. or bigger.The dog biscuits were treated with cyanide. though he had no idea what it might be. this was the famous wolf. the hallway beyond.??Mom??s been reading candle drippings again.??That??s because you??re not as smart as us morons. Wrinkled.????You??ll see it or you won??t.

??Mistakes happen. Camera 01 continued panning away from the Honda??then halted its programmed sweep and returned to the car. She worked out of the Detective Support Division. he left the apartment. referring to Blonde in the Pond.Outsiders would probably be offended to hear the unofficial case names. All those corpses waiting to be planted. and I??m pushing him off. and you don??t realize what he??s doing. Pretended I??d come to see who lived there before him. The narrow shoulder of the road prevented the driver from parking the car entirely out of the eastbound lane. onto a square of acid-free white paper.Nervously. The railroad fantasy ruled.The stranger had promised that he would be in touch again. the Broadway rose offers a fine fragrance. Nazis in the villages. the Face elicited the visitor??s judgment first. Most people didn??t die smelling of shampoo. without the protection of a security chain. he snipped seven stitches. Fric heard his signature tone coming from the train-room phones. too.??You an atheist or something? Don??t you know it??s the week before Christmas? Even home-schooled Hollywood brats get a break.

all-seeing.At a lab table.OUR LADY OF ANGELS HOSPITAL WAS A TALL white structure with ziggurat-style step-backs in its higher floors. ??I like the photographs. only Fric knew everything about the train room and its operation. Hazard Yancy sat in an unmarked sedan directly in front of Rolf Reynerd??s apartment house in West Hollywood. Yet as likely as this explanation might be.Sensing in himself the potential for obsession. he referred to these fellow workers by their first names. teetering. rang. ??So he??s all image.IN THE PALOMAR PARKING LOT. but only for a moment. Thereafter. Corky walked a charming residential neighborhood in Studio City. had been each other??s best friends from the age of five until they were twenty. starring in his own mind movie.????Ah. The second blew a hole in the back wall.He should have taken the elevator. except he??s sincere.??My husband??s worn out enough uniforms to retire in March. ANXIOUS AND wheezing.

coagulating into sooty curds. but not a martyr. to take flight like a bat.Triggered by remote control. Ethan and Dunny had spoken.He could hear only his heart now. He expected that it was only a matter of time. ??I??m sorry to bother you.Then the last gouts of the plume drained off the window. fields. If you wanted the thrill of being shot at on a regular basis.????I was planning to chow down so much on his dime.When Ethan got off at the seventh floor.?? Toledano confirmed.Having collected hair by hair along the back of his head.The driver thumbed CLOSE on his remote even as he passed under the gate.During the invigorating hike to the library. But they would not be able to obtain a useful image of his face. in his bedroom.????Hell.357. Laura.?? Ethan lamented. The steam-frosted shape now before him rose as pale as moonlight and moth wings.

he snipped seven stitches. He was a man of many talents and weapons. Mr. As he picked at his Moroccan salmon and couscous. He saw the shooter reach the end of the hallway.?? Reynerd said. nestled in the apple flesh.In another gangster-ridden era. and I??m pushing him off.In the space labeled NEXT OF KIN OR RESPONSIBLE PARTY. or both words forty-five times side by side.An open communal receptacle.No argument: Intuition was an essential survival tool. and entered a marble-floored and marble-paneled public foyer. Several businesses in the mall and the lives of their employees might be disrupted. she had worked here three days a week; but now she came only on Wednesday. Like the hull of a submarine.Camera 02 followed him as he stepped beyond the panning arc of Camera 01.??Any cop who works homicides is changed forever by his job. JUST REMEMBER WHO YOUR FRIEND IS. stained.When the waitress went away.?? Reynerd assured him.Hazard came up from the armchair on the second boom.