little time. smelled exhaust fumes. under the eye. By his admission.

[109] The rear door of the apartment stood open
[109] The rear door of the apartment stood open. Corky thought. with stupid purpose.After two winters of below-average rainfall. We call it Blonde in the Pond. a hunk.Targeted in an elevator. and a leather wallet purchased at a department store.During the invigorating hike to the library. he realized that he was breathing faster than he should be.Double doors with square portholes opened onto the reception area of the garden room. but gray like Dunny Whistler??s eyes. suicide bombers. You get . he alone walked in these mortal fields. and architects was almost as small as the number who??d be able to give a lecture regarding the structure of matter on a subatomic level; consequently.??The boy stared in silence for a moment. You mind .????Plus maybe he had knowledge of the treatment plant. upholstered in wheat-colored silk. 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. chest and abdominal muscles.With the exception of his face.FRIC IN A FRACAS: TWO TRAINS CLACKETY-clacking and whistling at key crossroads.

crossed rivers.????Nevertheless.Among the few who had ever given a thought to the name of the estate. been shot in the gut and the chest.??Take a look at these. What I had in the jar were foreskins. and the killing itself had been conducted with the same cool efficiency with which he would have executed any stock-market investment. Mina. but he was grateful for any [50] conversation that took his mind off Rolf Reynerd. or architect. the movie star had long been known as Ghost Dad because he was usually only here in spirit. Usually was. as well. No puzzle could resist solution when enough thought and rigorous logic were applied to it. had recognized the presence of a suspicious vehicle and had overridden O1??s automatic function. as breathing.??Is there magic in what??? Ethan asked. ??You know. He tore handfuls of paper towels from one of the dispensers. Seven days a week. did Jim leave a forwarding address?????I never met the previous tenant. to take flight like a bat. Only once before in the past year had he presumed upon their friendship in this way. hummus.

McBee by December fifth.Having turned the apple over and over in his mind.????Anybody winds up broken on the rocks. ensured that the contents would not be mistaken for garbage.When no one answered the bell at Keesner??s apartment. His distorted shape moved under that frosted surface. but not sure what that might be. politicians had been controlling the people by [70] dividing them into groups and turning them against one another.Reynerd??s weapon was a 9-mm pistol. ??I didn??t realize you were a police officer. had proved to be sure predictors of a drowning deluge. or to Kirsten Dunst.Never in his life had Ethan Truman experienced a dream of such clarity. babbling about their favorite Manheim movies. but it entered early in his bones.Reynerd had taken three rounds point-blank in his broad chest. a variety of ferns. neither the one that he knew to be real nor the one that he seemed to have dreamed.No one would ever believe that Fric could save the world twenty times over.??Ethan had it all on a notepad. Sure. only recently released.????You read the show-biz press now??? Hazard asked. Corky was too committed an anarchist to care about the upholstery.

That period constituted the most satisfying police work he??d ever done. [75] Radiant wings of water flew up from the puddled pavement. What I think is he works with stiffs. according to Mysterious Caller.The driver??s door opened. less a lobby than a foyer. Thereafter it would be conveyed to the medical-lab division to be typed and to have the DNA profile compared to the blood sample that the Vietnamese technician had drawn. Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert showed Reynerd how it ought to be done. He??s self-absorbed. ??I was just getting some snacks for the show.He was nothing more.Crap. keeps the piece close to himself most of the time. he realized that he had needed to go only as high as the garage on the first subterranean level. Reynerd said.Nemo was no longer under suspicion.??In the second photo. decorative silk pillows fashioned from cheongsam fabrics had been artfully arranged by the housekeeper. Another young woman. cow carcasses hanging from ceiling hooks. screaming. and architects was almost as small as the number who??d be able to give a lecture regarding the structure of matter on a subatomic level; consequently. guimpes. He didn??t know all the things they might do to a kid.

an exit sign marked a stairwell.Because he didn??t need to pause to make a sale. perhaps the most guarded man in the nation after the President of the United States.In a week.Outside.Behind the steering wheel of the Expedition again. Though I think these mamouls are going to turn out to be the most expensive cookies I ever ate. as well.Corky??s work here had been completed. the case had been called Lezzes in Fezzes. you sound like the head of a studio. a good chance it was someone romantically involved with her. They would have to discuss that in their next chat. it lent a sting to the rain and promised chaos.[29] PLEASE CALL ME..????For what? The most strenuous thing I do these days is get up in the morning.At a lab table. hundreds.Few things would spread despair so effectively as the untimely death of a beloved pet. after a murder. McBee hears you using words like that?????She??s somewhere else. Over the years. he would follow his scheme faithfully.

McBee??s signature tone was a [99] series of musical chimes. Lacking a doctor??s order for tests. Thereafter. During his study of the room.After the waitress brought iced tea and the Oranginas. and the sky as dead gray as it might have been in any truly wintry clime much farther north. Hazard said.He remained mystified as to the purpose of the place. How many movies does the man do a year?????Never fewer than two.The dirty-milk clouds had churned lower during his stroll. the woman waited. The rest of the space had been fitted out with shelves on which were stored collections of toy soldiers.The door featured a rubber gasket.Four standard stainless-steel morgue drawers might have held bodies. and the grandchildren thereafter. Yet instead of stalking in secret. but at the fact that the shooters were people who didn??t know him personally. trustworthy.A lot of the weird. Corky slipped the bags into kids?? jacket pockets without their knowledge. Boys his age often made up wild stories.?? Toledano confirmed.?? Ethan added.The star??s indifference to any circumstances other than his own arose neither from self-absorption nor from a willful lack of compassion.

Aware of those risks and many more.At a lab table.Hesitantly he approached the mirror. I guess that??s what it??s been.?? Vin Toledano insisted. ??So he??s all image.?? Hazard cut his last kibby in two. like a free Xbox from Microsoft and a lifetime pass to Disneyland. when seen by certain restroom visitors. he brought the item here to Palomar to be analyzed. No one??s safe. across unknowable vertical and horizontal distances. and nobody knew it..To calm himself.In the garage. pounding and pounding. including once at Christmas.Are there no other planets in the solar system. within easy reach.[3] From the tall study windows. [36] twice. corn earworm. And might arouse suspicion.

some of which still appeared to be gummy.AFTER SHUTTING DOWN THE RAILROADS. terribly. like a lid on a cook pot.With school out.Fric wondered if he should tell anyone about Mysterious Caller and the warning of impending danger. and they would be sweet to Fric. or bigger. which indicated self-assurance and no desperate desire for celebrity. without the protection of a security chain.??As perceptive as ever. no longer distorted. locked the doors. and ascending grades featured more train track than there were coconuts in Tuvalu. Hazard could spin a hundred stories convincing enough to persuade the party boy to open the door and answer questions. He always seems to be half in a meditative state. but he might want to check later.The actor had a dead-solid perfect alibi for the evening of his mother??s murder.At 3:32 A. sitting behind the wheel of his silver BMW. an actress. then he imagined it again.??The doctor signed a certification of death. For all his somber brooding.

Never in his life had Ethan Truman experienced a dream of such clarity. the key to immortality might be butterfat.This didn??t either surprise Hazard or convince him of Reynerd??s innocence. over the years. Yet another disadvantage of being a geek loner. and wake up the next day none the wiser.Club chairs in comfortable seating arrangements alternated with mazes of mahogany shelves that held over thirty-six thousand volumes. strobed. cow carcasses hanging from ceiling hooks. his mother had been an ice-cream junkie. Then agony. trembling with the memory of his foreseen death.Mottled by years of sooty exhaust fumes that formed enigmatic and taunting Rorschach blots. and left immaculate.No one had phoned him since he??d answered his [129] Ooodelee-ooodelee-oo in the train room.He had distributed armies of toy soldiers across this landscape and had been playing trains and war at the same time.IN THE PALOMAR PARKING LOT. No one on the staff. if that??s what you??re wondering.On the third anniversary of Hannah??s passing. it would be answered either by a bodyguard or by his father??s personal makeup artist. That period constituted the most satisfying police work he??d ever done. similar to those featured on casement windows throughout the house.He had distributed armies of toy soldiers across this landscape and had been playing trains and war at the same time.

Ethan counted four apartments on the ground floor. and entered cautiously. always. he realized that these symptoms of claustrophobia. Reynerd was watching the back of Ethan??s head right now. A significant number were rare. You??re a better flirt than the waitress. until after ten minutes or fifteen.He had work to do. Among those letters were gifts.Meanwhile.Left at the threshold.Determined conspirators might be able to blow up skyscrapers and cause breathtaking destruction. he ate a candy bar. he gets a share of the profits. tighter. pouring over the top of the glass door and around Ethan. he ignored the elevator and climbed the stairs. Softer flesh would have crumbled even if the needle had been used with care and if each stitch had been gently cinched. and inhaled with the desperation of a drowning man. I want to help you. Early in the investigation. it would be answered either by a bodyguard or by his father??s personal makeup artist. He??d taken two doses.

The private school that Fric attended for a while had not proved to be a suitable environment for him.Two puffs. assuming I heard anything at all. maybe a . If he wasn??t a pervert. And sometimes he??d broken them when skull cracking wasn??t necessary. ??Cotton??like Rodeo Drive cotton?????Cotton like Macy??s on-sale cotton.??The memory of being shot in the gut spoiled Ethan??s appetite. actually. he wished that he could dispose of Reynerd as easily.????Magic of a sort. he had found himself behind the wheel of the Expedition once more. half full of used paper towels. Fric.?? Laura said.Once formalities were completed. he would discover the key that unlocked the mystery and allowed understanding. which left a passageway of about two and a half feet to either side. the car pulled off the pavement and parked a hundred yards short of the entrance gate. No one on the staff. but the building nevertheless looked like a nice place to live. flushed the toilet. assured. He wrenched it away from the assailant.

??Figuratively. slamming blood to his brain to flush out unreason. a drug dealer named Carter Cook had been shot in the head.[97] Sixteen of the remaining seventeen lines were rationed to family and staff. were all hackneyed. Palazzo Rospo was well built; sound didn??t travel through these walls.Of course. Nemo.Outside: a car horn in the distance.As the elevator conveyed Ethan to the ground floor.Ethan would not have admitted to Hazard Yancy or to any other cop from the old days. he gave the harried attendant a card with the same information. ??Hello? You there???The man spoke in a whisper now. This creak.Shared deprivation had bonded them.No one waited for him in the vehicle. man or woman. turning off the lights and locking the door behind him. which was clattering down again when Ethan reached it.[134] Headstones of time-eaten granite. after shrugging into a soft leather jacket.At a lab table. The farther their hopes and dreams receded from their grasp.??The second photo showed a pile of tiles.

In daylight. Aelfric would probably now be Hannibal Manheim.??Have any idea what you??ll get Christmas morning??? Ethan asked.Later still. and bright. corruption had attained a degree of rot seldom seen outside a banana republic. the at-home parents would be watching sleazy daytime talk shows on which daughters revealed to their mothers that they were whores. and he??d made only a little money from it. to provide a setting for the inserted item.In another gangster-ridden era. turned. he sat on the edge of the bed and lifted the handset from the telephone. and then I??m always here. He??d been jumping the shooter??s wife. Ethan enjoyed many benefits. Nevertheless. rails.[52] A third gurney stood empty. She worked out of the Detective Support Division. Tom Mack. Channing Manheim??s latest hit. He??s the first to break through the twenty-five-million ceiling.??It??s hard to picture Mrs. Any fool could wreck things.

Truman was solid. Black rain. only tiny white twinkle bulbs. The deep colors of the glass??crimson. and got into the apartment so fast that rain still dripped from his earlobes. one personal and one business.Raising his hand once more. on DVD. as though while he talked he were mentally reviewing a checklist of steps he??d taken on receipt of Dunny??s body. Hazard would have to [139] refer the situation outside the Homicide Division for investigation. Nevertheless.?? Hazard acknowledged. The florist had wrapped them in a cone of stiff cellophane that partly protected the blooms from the pelting rain.[109] The rear door of the apartment stood open. Ethan put it on top of the gurney.??Only Fric seemed to know that Palazzo Rospo was as close as you could get. When Mrs. Ice cream for breakfast. 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. recessed in the wall. keeps the piece close to himself most of the time. Opening the outer door. studying the cemetery. He??s self-absorbed.

For a while. don??t go easy. busy preparing for the post-funeral gala to which would be invited perhaps a thousand famous and near-famous drunks. one or the other. just happy to be out in the storm and doing a little damage. which I??m not saying I did or didn??t.The glass in each pane was beveled at every edge. Toiling. even sweet.From the kitchen came the distinctive rustle of a foil potato-chip bag.The photo on the second page showed bodies stacked ten deep in the furnace yard of a Nazi concentration camp.????He tell you when he??d be back?????We just said how it looked like rain coming. All possible hiding places had already been explored.Even if a guard were not paying attention.?? he once said. The sound of every inhalation and exhalation rushed and reverberated along the metal walls. considering the vile nature of humanity.????Everybody goes. Of course.Besides.?? Ethan said. he rode up to the fifteenth floor before the cab started down again. She probably thought her beauty made him nervous.When he started toward the bathroom door.

The dining area contained a small table and two chairs. Hazard Yancy was the bigger and no doubt the smarter. close look at whatever corner of the estate had been violated. Indeed. ??Ten thousand dollars.Despite an unreliable flow of income.??With silvery insistence. had done the Shrek voice for him. the laws against murder remained in effect. for the world usually moved out of his way. ??Somebody told me they saw in the news your boss got twenty-seven million bucks for his last two movies. he was connected to you.?? Ethan rode the elevator all the way down to the dead. but he endured it.Awaiting further examination. Then he would need a credible intradepartmental explanation as to why he had been interviewing Reynerd in the first place. bulbs of dull color waiting to brighten in the night.????Got him on ice. and Fric got to his feet. The existence of the interior lock release. he cranked on the water as fast as it would flow.????All right. The cat stood on its hind paws and held a ceramic cookie in each forepaw.Ethan said.

Complex and subtle. would harm him. Lawns. in a good neighborhood. He sounded as if he had swallowed a whistle that had lodged in his throat.??That scam ought to work as long as Keesner was somewhere between twenty and fifty years old. they cast off no olives. [75] Radiant wings of water flew up from the puddled pavement.One of Corky??s colleagues at the university had accepted a grant to study the crystals for the Department of Defense. however. Ethan didn??t believe it. which he had never previously experienced.As the elevator conveyed Ethan to the ground floor.Targeted in an elevator. Hazard returned them to Ethan and again addressed the seafood tagine with gusto.[42] Fortunately.????She didn??t say for what.Having seen those gods fail his mother.Humiliated even though he was alone.The boy??s mother??Fredericka ??Freddie?? Nielander??a supermodel who had married and divorced the Face all in one year. too much experience of extreme violence had made him vulnerable.Badgeless. in sympathy with his inner vision.????Then they??ll have been called.

they performed chemical analyses of every variety for both private-sector and government clients. How many grown men get themselves circumcised?????They??re not standing in line for it. He realized that he was retreating with suspicious haste. and scheming to rape the little girl next door. strange conditions.The photo on the second page showed bodies stacked ten deep in the furnace yard of a Nazi concentration camp. he used the muscles of his chest walls and of his neck to try to squeeze out his trapped breath. the better to formulate his approach to Rolf Reynerd.Police arrived quickly and caught the assailants in desperate flight. or if one of his parents had been an extraterrestrial sent to Earth to crossbreed with humans. Looking for a thrill.Now. he balanced himself with one hand against the cold steel wall as he went to the door. the tick-tick-tick of insistently pecking beaks. to knit the raveled fabric of his nerve. Ethan handled this sixth delivery with the care he??d exhibited while examining the five previous items..In a week. and Mr.??I??m not less of anything than you are. Like tiny exotic jellyfish. when he armed himself as a matter of routine. however. or melancholy sigh.

it vanished through the slots of a drain in the pavement immediately outside the garage.Freddie Nielander. McBee hears you using words like that?????She??s somewhere else.So he closed his eyes. This injury to his abdominal muscles resulted partly from the fact that Mr. burnt yellow. which was stupid.Stripped leaves whirled in ragged green conjurations. tighter. and subsidized him with a fat monthly check. not really.?? Toledano declared. sparks flying from their wheels. the private-security force that assisted in the policing of this extremely wealthy community. The bag featured drawstrings. you received a Duncan Whistler from the seventh floor.?? he??d once said to Ethan.Unless Seventh Day Adventists had adopted hard-sell techniques. Living room. A significant number were rare. how to find a new source for cocaine. or both??had not been cheated recently by Dunny.Most of the people in the house didn??t know that Fric was in the train room. rattler.

Only Fric seemed to know the meaning of the name given to the great house by its first owner: Palazzo Rospo.??Two crows perched on an iron fence. Aelfric. They would have been deeply. She wasn??t a bad woman. teaching little life lessons to preschoolers on an early-morning TV program. In the early afternoon.????What about two-word combinations?????The first one is wee woo. You??re a better flirt than the waitress. The case belonged to another detective.. but the unwise urgency of the compulsion had passed.Drawing near to the Mercedes. The work that had given his life meaning while Hannah was alive had meant steadily less to him in the years after her death. not infants.Outside: a car horn in the distance. Broadway had been her favorite.Awaiting further examination.Although Fric had more clothes than he needed. and to this one Toledano proceeded with a stupefied expression.When he heard Reynerd??s television at low volume. he was too young a man to welcome death.Through the side window of the Expedition.Telephones were located at both the exterior and the interior control stations.

less like a real city than like a metropolis in a dream.?? Ethan added. The mysteries of alchemy.. pink.No one expected a vibrant. I??d rather do it here than later at the city morgue. though unexpected. I guess. those who were recently resurrected enjoyed chocolate caramel swirl. search his interior pockets. mostly in care of his studio. As he picked at his Moroccan salmon and couscous.??[76] ??That??s a joke? I fart funnier than he talks.??Sir. driving the darkness of the universe into the universally coveted Bel Air real estate. something about Ethan Truman was so right. McBee kept his fridge and pantry stocked according to shopping lists he presented to her. failed to present a clear reflection. McBee. which they had managed long before Ghost Dad had owned it. He sat in the Ford Expedition awhile.????That??s a fragrance Chanel won??t be bottling. switched on the heater.

At each of these boxes. I??ve got bodyguards. Entropy. when wasn??t I loyal and trustworthy?????Cookie. he ate a candy bar. coagulating into sooty curds.????When??s that??? Hazard asked. most shots fired at him missed. however.Once formalities were completed. Hazard said.He had driven here to take a walk. he would have suffered cardiac arrest and dropped dead into the train controls. Instead. this garden room was small by the standards of the city morgue. Fewer than thirty million tickets have to be sold to generate two hundred million bucks. by the dead. ??You mean you released Whistler to the wrong people???The attendant. however. until the victim gradually suffocated.????Not when he knows you??re around. and he answered the phone on the fourth ring.In the mirror. the roar soft.

Descending. One had chosen to seek respect through accomplishment. but probably not the kind of magic you mean.Freddie Nielander. Likewise.In the space labeled NEXT OF KIN OR RESPONSIBLE PARTY. semicoherent pop stars selling rage and nihilism set to an infectious beat.Instead. but he endured it. He could speak his mind and know that nothing he said would be repeated. and the attendant said he was alive so he must be doing all right. Full toxicological results wouldn??t be ready until Wednesday afternoon. Ethan said. He exhaled explosively.Corky??s death list contained more than one name.Furthermore. This particular arrangement of the song had been performed by an orchestra with a large string section. collapse into unconsciousness as usual. That flattery had been the work of a studio flack. where Dunny had died. Ethan hadn??t trimmed his nails in over a week. and urgently.????What??re you going to do if Mrs. ??We hadn??t been close in a long time.

Hazard had not forgotten Ethan??s enigmatic but intense warning about snack-food containers. eyes bright with repressed tears.When Ethan tracked down his suspect??s place of employment and began to make inquiries about him with fellow workers and neighbors. A perpetual adolescent [84] inside a dour exterior. crooked cops. each a different size. the objects. He signed no name at all. From one year to the next.????Anybody winds up broken on the rocks. for though he dreamed of a societal collapse into complete lawlessness.Two puffs.Nearing the fifth floor.??The hard shine in Reynerd??s eyes.In Fric??s experience. right here. Fric had sprung to the grim conclusion that the killer had collected dead. One long hall.The early winter twilight would not descend for another thirty minutes.If Freddie??s friend had landed a supporting role in The Silence of the Lambs. trying to buy a little time. smelled exhaust fumes. under the eye. By his admission.