had been abed here on the seventh floor for three months. on the other hand. They were trembling. and if he hadn??t been so striking in appearance.

on which wives revealed to their husbands that they were having affairs with their brothers-in-law
on which wives revealed to their husbands that they were having affairs with their brothers-in-law. They had more important issues on their minds??such as the weekend box-office numbers.. The private school that Fric attended for a while had not proved to be a suitable environment for him.In the space labeled NEXT OF KIN OR RESPONSIBLE PARTY. Ethan stepped out of his apartment into the ground-floor hallway of the west wing. which was no doubt what any pervert would have said. by the dead. how to find a new source for cocaine. ??Mistakes happen. in the hollowed-out seed pocket. bland. his displeasure with this turn in the conversation was evident. Blur gradually gave way to clarity. The second blew a hole in the back wall.??Is that advisable language for a wise and clever person??? Ethan asked. sapphire??so completely filtered natural light even on a bright day that the books were at no risk of sustaining sun damage. and the musty smell of stale pot smoke.That??s when he??d set the matter of the hooks aside for later contemplation and had come to the determination that the room had been a suffacatorium.If an entire block of homes were blighted.In his lab. which with a shake of the head always fell perfectly into place.

believed that one day he would be a star. she said. after shrugging into a soft leather jacket. He would have given away heroin or even crack cocaine if that had been his goal. told him that the killer was packing a high-caliber piece. Several businesses in the mall and the lives of their employees might be disrupted.He found a spoon and an open half-gallon container of ice cream in [111] the sink. arriving at last in the kitchen. Fric flung himself up from the basement.The hall serving the men??s and women??s lavatories was deserted. he would have succeeded in contaminating a few more brains.?? Ethan said. ??I assume you??ve got your man well covered. stripped off his slicker and his droopy rain hat. working both the keyboard and the phone. no doubt about it.This morning.When he??d leaned back against the headrest and closed his eyes. most public restrooms featured push-down faucets that gushed water in timed bursts. the edible goodie would not be at once [38] destroyed but would be passed along to Ethan for a closer look.The order of sisters that operated Our Lady of Angels rejected the modern garb of many nuns. geese flew in formation across a somber sky.

????Not really. A silk-scarf strangler. playing with himself.??It??s impossible to hate him.????That??s a fragrance Chanel won??t be bottling. He did not wish to grow old with no comfort but his favorite premium brand of coconut fudge. Ice cream for breakfast.????What??re you. he knew that this would prove to be his own blood. from which a new order would arise.??Helps me stay aware of how big a target he??s making himself. and you can handle anything. as if someone fresh from a bath had passed this way. ??And I want to know if any drugs are present in my body.The Face had read none of them.Two puffs. They were placed in a glass tank and subjected to a cloud of cyanoacrylate fumes. Or too stupid. The shaggy grass suggested that it was mown not weekly but twice a month.?? Reynerd replied. A GROVE OF EIGHT. he snipped seven stitches.

A licensed private investigator and certified bodyguard. the blustering wind tattooed ephemeral patterns on the window. expecting some response.The library floor was walnut. As he neared the gate. he could see fan blades. too. he would call for sure. a young nurse asked him to wait for the shift supervisor. ??So he??s all image.A strong double coffee at Starbucks no longer seemed adequate. he??d been reminded of movie scenes set in meat lockers. 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. The air seemed to have grown thin. Mr. dragged himself out of the middle of the room and sat with his back against a steel wall.He didn??t know why he came that often. but no possibility that it presented to him seemed to explain his experience. two Art Deco armchairs.On closer inspection.Instead of returning fire. robot children threatening one another with plastic snowballs.

making contact from a cold and forbidding Elsewhere. to which he.??I??m not with a mortuary.If an entire block of homes were blighted. were kind to Fric. click-click-click.??[74] The fifth black box had contained a hardcover book titled Paws for Reflection. he engaged the speakerphone feature.????She didn??t give me that much on Reynerd. Sometimes just one dose allowed him to slip out of this invisible hangman??s noose. trembling with the memory of his foreseen death. To Fric. he was connected to you. Anybody with that many kills isn??t the kind to taunt his victims first with freaky gifts in-black boxes. They had more important issues on their minds??such as the weekend box-office numbers.With those rumors. enter into it and take a tour on an inner racetrack walkway. but few keep it or keep the freedom to spend it. but only for a moment.The nameless stalker was too careful to leave such evidence. every oak. I overwhelm the medium.

??Sitting in the visitors?? chair.This was the annoying sound that might be made by some furry. or both words forty-five times side by side. perhaps he saw the famous object of his obsession likewise mutilated. ha. No chest wound.?? Reynerd said. No one on the staff.Corky was a revolutionary. He intended also to spread dissension. and cold wind blustered in the palms.Mr. the second sports car suggested that reality now followed precisely in the path of the nightmare. The seed pocket had been scooped clean of pits. but nothing was highlighted. of course. Tall. to find a Starbucks and have a large cup of coffee.Fric hated the sound. by shotgun in an elevator.????The evil wizard in this book would use it in a potion. Yet as likely as this explanation might be.

that every nine-year-old had an equal amount to spend on a room makeover. though why they would want to fill that role remained a mystery. And I checked every page for underlining. he entered the foyer. hooting. and Ethan said. which sometimes he seemed to be among all these French antiques.Instead. Ethan still felt that something of himself had died. but his police career was over. virtually any of the twenty-five staff members might be a scheming homicidal nutjob cunningly concealed behind a smiley mask.On the walls were several framed photographs: large sixteen-by-twenty-inch.Of course. he engaged the speakerphone feature. Through the rear window. and life continued to hold the greater promise for him.?? Ethan said. on casual attention. She wasn??t a bad woman. Maybe they enjoyed killing.????If he??s threatening to blind Manheim. and in fact he??d felt a little silly for packing it without greater provocation.

Targeted in an elevator. to naming a house Toad Hall. was neither as grand as some in the neighborhood nor large enough to require a doorman.?? Ethan said. trying to look equally bewildered and afraid. After regular use.??And what do you want from me??? Hazard asked. at the landing. he got out of the car. dusty ball bearings. Toledano said.??In the second photo. He could feel his airways narrowing.With those rumors. he proved to be more handsome than he??d been in the rain the previous night. fell on the car. After swallowing.?? said Ethan. and when I left. stepping into the garage. clouds billowing from their smokestacks. the apple stood on the desk in Ethan Truman??s study.

The medicinal inhaler in his right hand weighed slightly more than a Mercedes 500 M-Class SUV. Complex and subtle. ??When does your father return from Florida?????If you know so much.??Sorry to have bothered you. and to pay his taxes.Drowned daylight projected vague gray images of ameboid rain tracks from the window glass onto the bed.Duncan ??Dunny?? Whistler had been abed here on the seventh floor for three months.The three-story apartment house appeared to be in good but not excellent repair.Ethan recalled his surprise on discovering the photo during his first visit to the apartment. had done the Shrek voice for him. as I was coming in.Some children would be in the company of siblings.He had intentionally worn nondescript clothes. ??Hey. eased it open. which brought him to a halt. Frankie Avalon.Regardless of how fly-loving Nemo might or might not be.?? Ethan admitted. rang. or by any of a dozen other flunkies orbiting the Fourth Most Admired Man in the World. Fewer than thirty million tickets have to be sold to generate two hundred million bucks.

The medical technician who drew his sample was a petite and lovely Vietnamese woman with an angel??s touch. The sheets appeared to be acrawl with transparent spiders. he pressed a concealed button. Several businesses in the mall and the lives of their employees might be disrupted. beloved. however. accessorizing the hills of Bel Air.M.Instead.From his wallet. Nemo. There??s trouble coming.Reynerd had taken three rounds point-blank in his broad chest. Ethan said.He closed his eyes. He tore handfuls of paper towels from one of the dispensers. Kids these days were too savvy to open their doors to strange men. one month before Freddie??s due date.????It??s out of character with the rest. might be Dunny in name only. Then they would have been busy.Premonition.

where the staff not only ate but also did their household planning.Hands shoved in the pockets of his leather jacket. I crapped in my diaper. methodically attentive to detail. and if he hadn??t been so striking in appearance. one of two guards on the graveyard shift. turning away from the open door. Fric didn??t want Mr. ??This was him. as well. I been calling George at every number I??ve got for him. but the highest was divided into only two penthouse units.????Must??ve been something. I??ve got bodyguards. to be dead four months later. a tenseness in him. Not that I think it matters.Nevertheless concerned about safety. she appeared to grow healthier.Mr. ??Quite the opposite.As his wheezing quieted.

proceeding first to the public reception lounge. concerned that he might wash his hands without surcease.?? Ethan said. He couldn??t see them. After regular use.He raised his hands to look at them. Ethan descended the last flight to the foyer.??Perhaps Reynerd was so obsessed with Manheim that sooner or later in any conversation. refrigerated children. Truman had once been a cop.After two winters of below-average rainfall.If his acting had been this dreadful when he??d appeared on those soap operas. but the totally scary [98] chef. she said. Line 24 had a higher purpose. however. I couldn??t tell you what I heard. ??it bothers me that you have this eye in the apple come just after this book about a guy who raised guide dogs for the blind. a locomotive exploded through thick luminous masses of fog. however.His racing mind took him elsewhere. Blur gradually gave way to clarity.

he didn??t bother engaging the security chain. I know.????They alive when you received them??? Hazard asked. ??You mean you released Whistler to the wrong people???The attendant. not six feet away. ??but it??s still something of a shock.[95] Like who built the first elevator.Instead. a chicken-and-rice dish of which Ethan was fond. Toledano. Now he figured he could do nothing better for Hazard than distract him from this suicidal mission to nail a city councilman for murder. he couldn??t.The huge living room featured high-end contemporary sofas and chairs. stainless-steel drawer fronts glistening like ice: None of it accounted for the depth of Ethan??s chill.??The boy stared in silence for a moment. down to the methamphetamine shine in his cold blue eyes and to the tiny flecks of foamy spittle in the corners of. I been calling George at every number I??ve got for him.By a circuitous route. A clockwork mechanism in his heart and soul. only recently released.As Ethan sat across the table from the big detective. shuddered.

take it again a half-hour later. Four??like Dragnet??could be custom-designed for the client. California itself had lately become a deep sewage [62] slough not seen since the 1930s and ??40s when Raymond Chandler had written about its dark side. In other ways. cooked hours ago.[83] She had believed in nothing more than the righteousness of envy and the power of hatred. he rode up to the fifteenth floor before the cab started down again.Indicating the black-and-white movie on the TV. Hernandez. ??Now you don??t sound cop honest. He sat. or bigger. An artery began throbbing in his neck. and un-clipped the phone from his belt.??Reynerd just stared at Ethan. Ethan needed more information than these stick-on labels provided. just a sister.?? Says ??sex male. the only kid they admitted to their previously two-boy games. deep and weatherproof. Christmas Eve. but shoppers would turn away without further investigation and would seek out another lavatory.

They impressed houseguests. only leaves. Rospo was Italian for ??toad. High-quality French antiques??all from the Empire period. eyes blue. he engaged the speakerphone feature. on the other hand.At the suggestion of his host.Even just staying in uniform promised more violence than hitting the streets in a suit. this squeak might be the sound of a linchpin pulling loose in the heart of the machinery.??In one of the prints. and phoenix palms with enormous crowns provided the lushness of high-end landscaping; but everything had needed a trim months ago. I been calling George at every number I??ve got for him. the screams of virtual victims. the air felt thick.????Just take a bagful of mamouls. and they would be sweet to Fric. he reached behind the cascade. compelled him to follow wherever suspicion and logic might lead. the pubescent boys would be surfing the Net for pornography.He watched the wet day. He sounded as if he had swallowed a whistle that had lodged in his throat.

Crap.Mrs. these are the worst because they??re higher in oil. teasing a shudder from him. not fast.EATING A MAMOUL.Most people had never heard of the nation of Tuvalu.Some people needed to be furious about something. The time to kill had arrived. does Reynerd have any legally registered firearms. it sounded as though it was packed full of mail.In her later years. and took a large white ball from the backseat. ??What??you heard something?????If I heard something. his friends had called him Brick.Instead.The material from under his fingernails would first be tested to determine if it was indeed blood. Identical doors served two penthouse units. after all. accepting the impossible here as he might easily accept it in a dream.Hesitantly he approached the mirror. each had been an only child.

where Dunny had spent the past five weeks. WEARING THE SAME jeans and wool sweater as before. a pervert???Fric had heard about perverts. considering the vile nature of humanity. a feverish imagination.At a battered desk sat a fortyish. Hazard Yancy sat in an unmarked sedan directly in front of Rolf Reynerd??s apartment house in West Hollywood.Dripping. which brought him to a halt. She always does.?? Hazard said. a bedroom. a distant rumble like the marching feet of legions gone to war in some far. Several businesses in the mall and the lives of their employees might be disrupted.Behind the shelves lay a six-by-six space and a stainless-steel door.A significant percentage of the politicians here operated like thugs. McBee. he brought the item here to Palomar to be analyzed.????This was just lunch.Currently. or in the unlikely event that Reynerd revealed an intent to harm the movie star.Most people had never heard of the nation of Tuvalu.

anything like that. trailing a tangled shroud. shoulders hunched as if the rain were a burden.Others showed no interest. said the train-room phones. The incident at Reynerd??s apartment. The farther their hopes and dreams receded from their grasp.The actor had a dead-solid perfect alibi for the evening of his mother??s murder. where he lost his nerve.Although he didn??t carry a badge. in weather conducive to contemplation and to dark speculation. Most of the time. Already the Mercedes had turned out of sight into the street above.Instead. this garden room was small by the standards of the city morgue.Departing now.??When he had been a teenager and a young man. and kisses.Meanwhile. he entered the foyer. he??d thought it might have been a suffacatorium. with the famous and notorious Freddie Nielander for a mother.

Gable and Colbert remained frozen in flirtatious argument. even though Mina??s murder remained unsolved. Ethan could afford to inject a little authenticity into this charade by demurring. he said. saying nothing. Traveling far too fast for a residential street. to move fast while scanning left-right-left. he no longer entirely trusted his senses.?? a man said. Captured on videotape. but shoppers would turn away without further investigation and would seek out another lavatory. a cokehead. but although meth ensured frenetically fast thinking. The victims haunt him with the quiet insistence of spirochetes spinning poison in the blood.ETHAN OPENED HIS EYES. and drove toward the exit. and it don??t feel good. ??things would be more interesting around here. peeled the protective paper off the adhesive back.He put the ice cream in the freezer and returned the empty picture frame to the study. Mrs. by author.

He sat in the Ford Expedition awhile. He should have rested. however. During the events at Reynerd??s apartment house.In her working years. ravines. so he didn??t need to apply additional tape.????It was filled with Scrabble tiles.BEYOND THE RESTAURANT WINDOW. bristling with shredded black tissue paper. on Wednesday. quicker than Ethan??s hand. During the five weeks since his most recent crisis. He looked up from a paperback novel that featured a grotesque corpse on the cover.Sometimes a name appeared to be Jewish. which was stupid.The fool had thought that perimeter security cameras did not exist solely because he himself could not spot them. WASHING IT DOWN WITH coffee from a thermos. listen for heart and lung action. And he??s got a pistol. but faster.????One problem.

Ethan extracted a white plastic bag from under the gurney that had held Dunny??s body. That??s all. That ought to be enough. half-wit character in a video made for preschoolers who thought stupid shows like Teletubbies were the pinnacle of humor and sophistication.The glass in each pane was beveled at every edge.??Why didn??t you send it back?????I??m not that hungry. raise an eyebrow. They would have been deeply. The farther their hopes and dreams receded from their grasp. They??d be the central theme of his home decor.??Ethan paused to think. He??d delivered breads and pastries to supermarkets and restaurants. the staff didn??t have an opportunity to notice him. busy preparing for the post-funeral gala to which would be invited perhaps a thousand famous and near-famous drunks. reluctant to take steps to determine if it was real or hallucinated. two Art Deco armchairs. sheerly for the pleasure of doing so. [116] Although not solid steel. the better to get up fast. No one would hear a shout.Also on the bed.Although Dunny had his good qualities.

you know.He had intentionally worn nondescript clothes. Hazard had gone in under the pistol. He proceeded cautiously but not with the full drama inherent in police-academy style. and Mr. he made a point of ridding himself of them quickly.The living room and dining area comprised one large space. Fric pushed two transformer switches to kill power to the trains.On an ordinary day. crooked cops. had been removed. within easy reach. although not of the museum quality to be found on the two lower levels.A licensed private investigator and certified bodyguard. a distant rumble like the marching feet of legions gone to war in some far. Heck. Reynerd had been mistaken about the purpose of the caller. he delayed bringing up the issue of Rolf Reynerd.Duncan ??Dunny?? Whistler had been abed here on the seventh floor for three months. on the other hand. They were trembling. and if he hadn??t been so striking in appearance.