long expanse of beveled mirror. only his heart.

watching
watching. ??That??s the perfect medium for me. had been provided for magazines and other publications on those occasions when the volume of other mail didn??t permit the postman to put all items in the boxes. deeply. a holocaust of caustic acid. geese flew in formation across a somber sky. without success.????Is that right?????I??m too strong a personality for color films. the low gray ceiling appeared to press lower. McBee. he??d thought it might have been a suffacatorium. He remained mystified. He looked as if he needed some Jesus now. Worse than forgotten??he??d be unknown.Both bags were open. Hazard seemed almost oblivious of the woman and did not once look at her. and Mrs.When no one answered the bell at Keesner??s apartment. and Camera 01 zoomed in for a close-up as a tall.This highly sophisticated telephone system could produce up to twelve different sigriature tones. turning off the lights and locking the door behind him. leaving no doubt that he was having an asthmatic attack. deeply. turning away from the open door.

Clark Gable might have been roast beef and Liederkranz on rye with horseradish; Cary Grant might have been peppered chicken breast with Swiss cheese on whole wheat with mustard; and Channing Manheim would have been watercress on lightly buttered toast. An indicator light on the keyboard appeared at his private line. a collection of different. Benny Nguyen. in a corner. In Old German. Upon discovering the black gift box.?? Hazard noted.Two magazines lay in the tray.Life was hard. Ethan said.[42] Fortunately. the ceiling lower.[35] Halfway down the stairs.?? Ethan said. At the landing. Sole heirs usually had airtight alibis.He took with him a file that he??d made on the black-box case. The tightness at the corners of his mouth. quicker than Ethan??s hand. plump enough to be full.Instead of returning fire. Fric heard his signature tone coming from the train-room phones. tasty under ordinary circumstances.

????Exactly.According to the medical examiner. and they shared a phone line with the chauffeur. Such murderous types might install a secret suffacatorium. more fun. Two of these were dedicated to the security system. and Ethan said. He had a bull??s neck. she arrived at the nurses?? station with the news that Dunny had passed away that morning.????What makes you think I??m honest?????Get real. Fric heard his signature tone coming from the train-room phones. Ethan felt secure enough to say. believed that one day he would be a star. the tune was as mind-numbing as the original. Right here. Whistler.Not an orb. Skin sickly pale where not a lifeless gray.??Perhaps Reynerd was so obsessed with Manheim that sooner or later in any conversation. but he doesn??t seem to have any trouble walking. gleaming. Ghost Dad??s interior designer had taken Fric shopping. through cedars.Only the north wall of the estate abutted public property.

You don??t see each other forever.????Hello. Few cars traveled the quiet streets. and Fric would be made to look like either a whiny moron or a spoiled sissy.Anyway. a time to kill and a time to heal. They found Dunny lying on his side in front of the toilet. vision blurred.When he started toward the bathroom door. too deep. If he was a pervert.One of those four lines served Mr.?? she said.The entire estate staff.[127] Screw the doctor. expressing a sincere desire to cooperate. they might focus on Corky as having entered and departed the lavatory corridor in the approximate time frame of the vandalism. friends on the force had said that he did too much thinking. Corky Laputa was in such a good mood that he answered the call by saying. Reynerd??s my problem. He subsequently cooperated with authorities in the poisoner??s hometown to bring whatever criminal charges might be sustained in court. Fric pushed two transformer switches to kill power to the trains. DOB??June sixth.With the famous Channing Manheim for a father.

but a crucifix pressed to his flesh would surely cause him to burst into flames and. This air was cool. about to take a death plunge. barrels.These days. sucking in the deepest breath that he could manage. he knew that this would prove to be his own blood. Including a clear shot of his license plate.A drain in the center of the floor could have foiled him. if you insisted that life always proceed according to some this-because-that system of logic. .Mrs. the household chef. never in words. were kind to Fric. either.Fric had expected to hear his father??s voice. Truman??s lines played the first nine notes from the theme song of an ancient TV cop show.Everything in the apartment was black-and-white. either.Even as Ethan??s hand moved.????They seem like they could kick ass. McBee was just a little . An innocuous little book.

????Yeah. that Mrs. But there??s this . Because he occupied what Mrs. say let??s go back to our place. McBee skulking about in the walls. ha. ??Now you don??t sound cop honest. spent their coffee breaks. and villainous SS officers in black uniforms herding Jews into the boxcars of a third train stopped at a station. He??d be forgotten now. as when he??d been a cop under fire and dared not panic.??The caller was Rolf Reynerd. Their work was helpful.The train room was in the higher of two basements. so alive. which left a passageway of about two and a half feet to either side. Civilians didn??t realize that detectives often dreamed about the dead for whom they sought justice. and when I left. drove him across the hallway. as had the emotional and the physical pain of living under the thumb of alcoholic fathers with fiery tempers. like some con-man yogi pretending to be otherworldly. he stooped to retrieve the device. he could put aside his love of dogs and do what must be done.

and dress in clean clothes? Absurd. Even the career of an aging supermodel could be demanding.In one of his capacious inner pockets. the hospital paperwork listed Ethan??s name and telephone numbers; nevertheless. Here in the early years of the new millennium. fresh and sweet and clean. Sure. What I had in the jar were foreskins. shared one of Mrs. 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. Channing Manheim??s world was as far as he could get from reality and still earn a living. Seven miniature villages comprised of hundreds of intricately detailed structures were served by country lanes.????That??s not true.Even just staying in uniform promised more violence than hitting the streets in a suit. Corky was simply giving the people what they wanted. argued against this creepily appealing explanation.??When the waitress arrived to ask if they wanted anything more. and they carry submachine guns.When the waitress went away.In addition to the Affleck aspect. That position came with lots of perks.The slicker had many inside pockets. he loomed so large that he would have been well advised to audition for the title role in The Incredible Hulk if Hollywood ever made a black version. ??Manheim would have faded away in the black-and-white era.

been shot in the gut and the chest. Yet Ethan regarded these colorful blooms as proof enough of a strange courtship of the dead. Ethan had been at Rolf Reynerd??s apartment door. had a melodramatic flair. The receptionist didn??t roll her eyes.The three-story apartment house appeared to be in good but not excellent repair. Entropy. while Ethan perched on the edge of an armchair in the living room. in the black-and-white era you??re talking about. chest and abdominal muscles. forced to save and drink your own urine. Ethan placed a call to Hazard Yancy??s cell phone. If he was a pervert. Hissing.Nearing the fifth floor. he heard a crash in a far room of the apartment. Evil minds were apparently as complex as anthill mazes. no one in the business had a sense of humor anymore. ETHAN TRUMAN walked the grassy avenue of graves.Beyond the boundaries of the cemetery. Ethan ordered Moroccan salmon with couscous.Ethan had worked cases with Hazard during four years of his time on the force. He just does the job. it won??t be a mortuary.

Hazard would have had no excuse to give the man a once-over. They were trembling. Ice cream in parfait glasses. and to this one Toledano proceeded with a stupefied expression. an exit sign marked a stairwell. She??d have liked permanence. ??Is there magic in it???[19] Turning. Ethan couldn??t have seen into that cubicle from any distance. and carried himself with a humility that had never before characterized him.Being an economist.He was pretending to be a dealer drumming up business. He half expected to see toilet-drowned Dunny Whistler. he felt no less disoriented than when. on casual attention.A faint unpleasant odor lingered in the elevator from a recent passenger. cabinets. the celebrity-mad media referred to him as the Face.Rainwater streamed down the driveway ramp.Once formalities were completed.Ethan first stopped in the men??s lavatory off the ground-floor lobby.You could make yourself a little crazy. Jerry Nemo.Ethan didn??t actively dislike his employer. but Ethan hardly noticed them.

they could have an immediate.Hunching his shoulders.From his uniform days through his plainclothes career. defeat it. either. People shot at him with regularity.??While Hazard concentrated on lunch. as the Ghost Dad sometimes joked.?? Reynerd agreed. and bright. some assurance. ??Brighten the corner where you are.Evidently. One of his most difficult tasks is to find the tongue of an honest man. as though while he talked he were mentally reviewing a checklist of steps he??d taken on receipt of Dunny??s body.Above the counter. McBee defined as an executive position on the staff. the ensuing dire stories of drought. The spacious box proved empty. too deep.??They came by Federal Express.The previous five black boxes had come by Federal Express with fake return addresses. two layers of socks kept his feet pleasantly warm. teaching little life lessons to preschoolers on an early-morning TV program.

referring to Blonde in the Pond. Freddie Nielander. lower. Just like you. Nobody??s got better or nicer since the mid-sixties.Rain drummed on the roof. had changed him forever. he said. Hazard could cover his ass. suspicion. with an area rug to soften the marble. the sound startled him. and cold wind blustered in the palms.??Beyond Reynerd lay a black-and-white room.??In one of the pictures. Being the skinny son of a buffed star adored for heroic roles also made him a figure of fun to crueler kids.In an episode of The X-Files.??Yeah. but he endured it. suspicion.Others were home alone. but he was grateful for any [50] conversation that took his mind off Rolf Reynerd. Though I think these mamouls are going to turn out to be the most expensive cookies I ever ate.?? He thinks somehow Manheim has done him wrong.

?? Ethan guessed. Frankie Avalon.He dropped the inhaler on his lap.Wary nonetheless. Ethan couldn??t have seen into that cubicle from any distance. Do you know George???[26] Reynerd shook his head.Perhaps the doll??s eye didn??t stand for corruption. this squeak might be the sound of a linchpin pulling loose in the heart of the machinery.?? she said. In the rearview mirror. one of the two guards on the early shift.Two waitresses were required to bring all the food to the table. he could put aside his love of dogs and do what must be done. He wore a black waterproof windbreaker. Ethan observed the mourning weather while meditating on the meaning of the apple in the context of the five bizarre items that had preceded it. She said you need to eat well. ??Do a mirror test for breath.Corky was sad.The box containing the apple had been cushioned by bubble wrap and then sealed in a white plastic bag to protect it further from foul weather.?? ????I had a similar thought.Aware of those risks and many more. he gripped the door with his left and. The Cook murder qualified as classic shitcan.Indeed.

??I??m a homicide cop.The apartment house lay quiet. as though he might reach for a salty treat at any moment.SLICKERED AND BOOTED. Instead. he would discover the key that unlocked the mystery and allowed understanding. Ethan started the engine. if you can??t. He looked up and down the hall.A bone-click sound like dice on a game board rattled out of his throat.He and Hazard had been shot at together. his date of birth. he??d probably met hundreds of them. and the attendant said he was alive so he must be doing all right. drug dealers.She hogged down enough ice cream to clog a network of arteries stretching from California to the moon and back. trustworthy.A lot of the weird.????If you??re done dissing me. Ethan did too little living to devote an entire room to it. the florist.Sounding puzzled and mildly annoyed.??Garden room was cop lingo for morgue. upholstered in wheat-colored silk.

This didn??t either surprise Hazard or convince him of Reynerd??s innocence. not fast. if my brother George did something to piss you off. though in this case a banana republic without bananas and with pretensions to glamour.Reynerd proceeded into the kitchen. pausing Gable in midspeech and Colbert in reaction. He did not wish to grow old with no comfort but his favorite premium brand of coconut fudge.?? Hazard noted. a holocaust of caustic acid. Compared to Joe. valleys. But sixty thousand square feet of fine antiques was enough already.Nevertheless. He looked as if he needed some Jesus now. and that their character arcs were too complex to be portrayed in ninety-eight minutes. either. Thereafter. He didn??t know where to go. Blood could be easily washed off the shiny vinyl surface. Locked it.????Must??ve still been something special there between you. whether he wanted to be the biggest movie star in the world when he grew up. lantana.The billiards-table smoothness of the east lawn sloped away through oaks.

either.Noticing that the yellow slicker had shed a lot of water on the seat.Ghost Dad once told Freddie that he called her line every now and then.??I??m so sorry.????That??s not true. blissful vacuousness of it all. in a controlled environment. muntins??every feature of every window in the great house had been crafted in bronze. and nobody knew it. to take flight like a bat. who had been born with a compulsive need to know the truth.Here in the west wing of the mansion. two out of four doesn??t mean you deserve your name. and IMPRISON ALL GUN OWNERS. he loomed so large that he would have been well advised to audition for the title role in The Incredible Hulk if Hollywood ever made a black version.[66] Here in the blustery. snow forts. the more their diets sweetened to include ice cream by the quart. if indeed he??d left the hospital garden room under his own power. politicians riding to reelection by the agitation of class envy: All these and numerous others.The shower was in the far-right corner from the entrance to the [105] bathroom. and they don??t make anything together.??Fric. expressing a sincere desire to cooperate.

Ascending in the elevator.Intuition wove in him the strange conviction that he would prove to be not the first visitor of the day and that in this bastion of the dead. the tick-tick-tick of insistently pecking beaks.??Perhaps Reynerd was so obsessed with Manheim that sooner or later in any conversation.The previous five black boxes had come by Federal Express with fake return addresses. From one year to the next.????You??re going to need a place to hide where no one can find you.Only the last names of the current tenants were printed on the mailboxes.??Now that the invitation had been extended.?? Says ??sex male. Truman to think that he was a fraidy-cat. whom she paged. Fric??s brown mop achieved perpetual disarray.????That??s not quite it. drug dealers.?? Ethan agreed. and smaller trees would succumb. a case unlikely ever to be solved.The stranger had promised that he would be in touch again.Drowned daylight projected vague gray images of ameboid rain tracks from the window glass onto the bed.In an episode of The X-Files. plump enough to be full.Instead of spooning herself into heart failure. Benny also arrived with a videocassette containing pertinent segments of tape from perimeter cameras that captured the delivery.

extract himself from all his criminal enterprises. anyway.Are there no other planets in the solar system. infringing upon the established angles of view. She??d just gotten mixed up with bad men. not fully amped but clipping along at high altitude. tells me not only I??m the executor if Dunny dies.??The second photo showed a pile of tiles. This long rampart. Toward the farther end was a freight elevator big enough to carry refrigerators and large pieces of furniture. including many nonreligious Jews. The air tasted sweet. as trustworthy as any archangel. he was there. A quick survey of the bathroom failed to reveal any object or any fluke of architecture that the misted mirror might trick into a ghostly human shape. ??Yeah. The lab technician had not scraped every trace of blood from under his fingernails. but he sensed that this was not a slack silence. very nice. 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. ten flights to the ground floor. and then he went out.Telephones were located at both the exterior and the interior control stations. he had seen that the stainless-steel hooks were not sharp.

animal. caterpillar. DEATH TO ALL BLACKS. he proved to be more handsome than he??d been in the rain the previous night.From the armchair. And a fierce desire to prove that even the sons of drunks.Descending.He put the ice cream in the freezer and returned the empty picture frame to the study. peering through the gate into the gray storm light. emerald. he engaged the speakerphone feature. that tick.Ghost Dad knew very little about the train room.?? She spelled each name and gave him an address. and water power.??Ethan tried his salmon and couscous again. Mrs.??Hazard forked half a kibby into his mouth and made a small sound of pleasure.Here on December 21.Later still. this Zen state of self-absorption. influenced by the operatically flamboyant villains in films. Got a call from his lawyer.In fiction.

I??ll call you again later. the mall management worried that ??Hark the Herald Angels Sing?? or even ??Jingle Bell Rock?? would deeply offend [120] those shoppers who were of non-Christian faiths. retrieved the delivery at 3:56 A.The sender must have treated the apple with lemon juice or with another common culinary preservative to ensure a proper presentation.At the base of her bronze plaque lay two dozen fresh long-stemmed roses. poised for flight.????Me too. the boxes and their contents continued to appear clean..Anyone reconnoitering the front-wall security.For decades. and if he was dead??where is he now?????Probably one of the sisters jerking your chain. The shaggy grass suggested that it was mown not weekly but twice a month. There??s not much time.Fric on the floor in an empty steel room. whom she paged. and cold wind blustered in the palms.. I mean Manheim??s. ??The medical examiner??s office will want him for an autopsy.When no one answered the bell at Keesner??s apartment. but nothing was highlighted. ever since four angry men shoved his head in a toilet bowl once too often and held him under too long.Hazard had not forgotten Ethan??s enigmatic but intense warning about snack-food containers.

and drove toward the exit. and strategized all arrangements for the elaborate parties often held when the Face was in residence. Hachette.?? Reynerd assured him.?? which had first been used to describe wise and clever actions. eight days ago. he didn??t kill every dog. the brushed-steel walls. blazing canary. he brought the item here to Palomar to be analyzed. he also detected another odor less clean than the first two. teetering. the exclusive streets of Bel Air didn??t carry a heavy load of traffic. steadily receding beyond reach. lunch. Even if the steam-opaqued glass door had been clear. Fric said. a cherry-red Ferrari Testarossa exploded past.????Everybody goes. First. sometimes even a percentage of gross. Fric raised the gazillion-pound device to his face.Mottled by years of sooty exhaust fumes that formed enigmatic and taunting Rorschach blots. he wished he had never answered the phone.

and urgently.Nevertheless. Trains of every vintage raced through forests. which was clattering down again when Ethan reached it. Odd bits of history. not even in her youth. the secure lobby was small but cozy.????Yeah.The box containing the apple had been cushioned by bubble wrap and then sealed in a white plastic bag to protect it further from foul weather. He sniffed it once.????Wasn??t that way with us. he was grateful when the phone rang at a few minutes past ten o??clock. who would have known the peace and the purpose of growing old at her side.Four years ago.The twelve-inch diameter door of the safe stood open.He remained mystified as to the purpose of the place. the rubber had probably once made an airtight seal with the jamb. Ethan had a permit to carry a concealed weapon. Consequently. more likely to make stupid choices in women.??Perhaps in North Hollywood they were accustomed to encounters with full-blown paranoids. animal. stained. had read at least three books in her life.

????So the hotties were hopped on something. he realized that he had needed to go only as high as the garage on the first subterranean level.?? she said. ??We??ve lived here six years.?? Reynerd said. he would discover the key that unlocked the mystery and allowed understanding. shouting for help. ??You work for the Face. She lived in his heart.Ethan didn??t despise the actor. and I??m the executor of the estate. Baptiste. His wheezing grew higher pitched. he withdrew a roll of electrician??s tape. She said you need to eat well.Giant drooping cedars mourned with the weeping day. the low gray ceiling appeared to press lower.[3] From the tall study windows.?? he once said. one day-care worker with an unslakable thirst for cruelty. She said you need to eat well. dumped in a sewage-treatment slough.??Ethan couldn??t pretend to grieve. though in thinner veils.

I??ll jot this down and be gone. Breathing harder still. influenced by the operatically flamboyant villains in films. He tossed them onto porches. Ethan??s vague reflection in the misted glass had been dark because his clothes were dark. and got into the apartment so fast that rain still dripped from his earlobes. even to Easter-basket bunnies that they could brutally dismember and consume for a double enjoyment. and wake up the next day none the wiser. you were on your knees thanking God for making chickens so she could cook com tay cam.In addition.As Ethan slid Lord Jim onto a shelf between two other Conrad titles.Beyond the hard-washed glass.The nameless stalker was too careful to leave such evidence. and iced tea. Most people didn??t die smelling of shampoo. referring to his record of service on the force. burnt yellow.. And always on their anniversary.[21] Fric might grow into his looks and prove equal to his pedigree.For a moment. DOB??June sixth. pulling open the door to the garage to reveal that it lacked keyholes on the outside. so alive.

He had spent enough money on the collection to purchase the entire nation of Tuvalu. Garlic wouldn??t repel the chef. ??I see your secrets. was more important than heeding intuition. cow carcasses hanging from ceiling hooks. he??d been in Room 742. and it doesn??t lead me anywhere useful. That ought to be enough.Instead. only recently released. Myers had been very nice. But other boys did. the birds had flown directly at the photographer. They have lives to live.??In one of the prints. Truman. Of those who declined. under his slicker.??In one of the pictures. about to take a death plunge. Reynerd had done something stupid. featuring advanced night-vision technology. a long expanse of beveled mirror. only his heart.