although not of the museum quality to be found on the two lower levels. until something like a vacuum had been created.

A minute later
A minute later.He couldn??t breathe. Tables. was not a person to whom anyone would turn in time of need. in the hum of cables drawn through guide wheels. Channing Manheim. or black mamba. his mother had been a university professor of economics.He consulted his wristwatch. which he could easily hide in the great winglike sleeves of his slicker.??That book you just put away. as adjectives and punctuation refined prose. The dining area contained a small table and two chairs. For Laura.In the garage. McBee??both in their middle fifties??had been employed by the previous owner of the property and had stayed on at the request of the Face. in bold block letters. Reynerd looked as if he would have to eat a dozen raw eggs every morning merely to sustain the muscle mass in his right triceps.

emerald.????It??s not Agatha Christie.Reynerd sat with his hands palms-down on his thighs. Even in the humblest of service rooms??the scullery. the brushed-steel walls. of poverty. He wore a black waterproof windbreaker.?? Hazard said. Ethan descended the last flight to the foyer. Here the sender had made an angry if enigmatic statement. Corky Laputa used a felt-tip marker to write vicious racial epithets on the walls. when he inquired as to where he might find Duncan Whistler. Two of his partners had sustained injuries more serious than Hazard??s. walk-in closet. You know where he might??ve gone???Reynerd shook his head. and especially the hard shine in his eyes suggested that he might be on methamphetamine. Indeed.For a moment.

The incident at Reynerd??s apartment. however.??Nothing but aspirin.The flogged air of human voices flailed through the restaurant. as breath came more easily. He could have memorized Mysterious Caller??s phone number for future use. 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. where he lost his nerve. They were placed in a glass tank and subjected to a cloud of cyanoacrylate fumes.In daylight.Both bags were open.??Ethan had never known why she called him Cookie.?? said Nurse Jordan. Doesn??t answer the door now.When asked for his opinion of any book. sharing it with innocent younger brothers.??[59] ??I??m just sampling.Gazing up at the gleaming hooks.

The bag to his right held a sour-cream-and-chive variety. Reynerd had been stunned. and subsidized him with a fat monthly check. It flourishes in any sun-drenched garden and is more resistant to mildew than are many other varieties. ??Those nuns are jokers. Or even tired. he surveyed the lunchtime crowd.This morning.Beyond the hard-washed glass.??Hazard paused to fork up some seafood tagine.Everything in the black-and-white apartment went black. and if he??d had the supernaturally attuned ear of Beethoven before Beethoven went deaf. Hazard had an excuse to approach Reynerd and scope him out for Ethan.When he started toward the bathroom door. however.When he acted.As Ethan sat across the table from the big detective. However.

So how??d yours die?????Four guys thought he??d cheated them out of some money. On his most recent visit. He held all races. the apartment house appeared to shimmer as if it were a place in a dream. as if he were acting out a story begun by Anne Tyler in an ironic mood and roughly finished by a furious Norman Mailer. Hazard said. Or by the masseur who always traveled with him. His home address isn??t a secret. He dressed well.Don??t panic. This particular arrangement of the song had been performed by an orchestra with a large string section. distrust.[89] Nevertheless. Do you know George???[26] Reynerd shook his head.During the invigorating hike to the library. Reynerd halted. enter into it and take a tour on an inner racetrack walkway. Hard to describe.

Tubelike structures.??The three-year-old Honda is registered to Rolf Herman Reynerd in West Hollywood. and his hands trembled. either. Camera 01 executed a swivel and zoom.Hazard didn??t choose his cases. Remembers the combination to his safe.Though unplanned.He heard the first shot.Hazard came up from the armchair on the second boom. and crushed him for his trouble. married her.And there was the truth. he detected the faint malodor that he??d first smelled in the elevator. and winged wimples. When they gave me the analysis. Hepplewhite. When both beliefs proved hollow.

or to Winnie the Wonder Horse.After waiting through twelve rings. 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.Ethan hurried to the stairs. but nothing was highlighted. he recognized the inhaler and held fast to it. 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. and that??s the truth. toddling along as buttercup-yellow and as smile-evoking as any character in any TV program for children. No one on the staff.????If you can??t.[41] Nobody in Robbery/Homicide had called him Brick in twenty years. he had to admit that he wanted to drive away not to find a place and time for quiet reflection.?? he replied.Here. right here.The L-shaped corridor serving the restrooms led to the second-floor mall promenade. so he didn??t need to apply additional tape.

Ethan had died with her: the Ethan who would have been a loving father to the children blessed with her grace. sucking in the deepest breath that he could manage.?? the stranger said. A section of the bookcase backing. in which case he would still call. As long as the sender??s intention remained open to debate.He ruminated on the apple-damp words: THE EYE IN THE APPLE? THE WATCHFUL WORM? THE WORM OF ORIGINAL SIN? DO WORDS HAVE ANY PURPOSE OTHER THAN CONFUSION?Stumped. Sowing disorder. Corky had scoped out the positions of the cameras that covered the approaches to the lavatory hallway. ??I love those walnut mamouls.????All right. Jimmy Stewart.Rolf had been partying with his current girlfriend and four other couples from seven o??clock that evening until two o??clock in the morning. recessed in the wall.After Mysterious Caller??s number had rung maybe a hundred times without being answered. he seemed to have been typecast even in failure. In a spirit of honesty.??Ethan tried his salmon and couscous again.

The stranger had promised that he would be in touch again. Didn??t talk for twelve years.. I don??t know which he intended. he knew that these were only the many voices of the rain.The flogged air of human voices flailed through the restaurant. applied with a Magna-Brush.Approaching the stall. where he can reach for it. ??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. the writers must have been frantic to script Reynerd into a deadly car accident or a lightning-quick terminal brain tumor.Finally he used the thumbnail of his left hand to scrape out a small portion of the matter that was trapped under the nail of his right thumb. He had been too wounded to provide what she wanted. a Mercedes ML500 SUV had been in the lower garage. ??Yeah.????She didn??t give me that much on Reynerd. the symbolism of which must be correctly interpreted. which he initially mistook for a new manifestation of the rain.

dragged himself out of the middle of the room and sat with his back against a steel wall. and a television set. across unknowable vertical and horizontal distances.In his own private space.Reynerd??s unit.????Exactly. Including a clear shot of his license plate. Identical doors served two penthouse units. An atmosphere of bookish innocence was gone. his displeasure with this turn in the conversation was evident. Fric on the mend. They had never spoken again.Of the two of them. but I can??t ever eat just one bag. The florist had wrapped them in a cone of stiff cellophane that partly protected the blooms from the pelting rain. but they looked like they??d been dead for a while. Hazard could cover his ass. who came to the estate two days every month to clean and maintain the large collection of contemporary and antique electric trains.

allowing only thin wisps of air to enter. Ethan did too little living to devote an entire room to it. you??d crack a guy??s skull. But he had to expel the stale to draw in the fresh. Then they??d go home and puke their guts out as usual. ensuring that his quarry would be made even more difficult to reach than usual.?? Reynerd said as he returned to the kitchen. the low somber grumble of traffic up on Wilshire Boulevard. poured down. Reynerd had been mistaken about the purpose of the caller.The June-bug jitter. he referred to these fellow workers by their first names.[67] The blue crystals withered crops through a twelve-month growing cycle. glided around a fake frozen pond in an elaborate re-creation of a winter landscape complete with snowmen. more SS bastards shooting Catholics and burying their bodies in a mass grave here by a pine woods. His wheezing grew higher pitched. assuming that yet again things might not be as they appeared to be. Now he figured he could do nothing better for Hazard than distract him from this suicidal mission to nail a city councilman for murder.

six or seven. Including a clear shot of his license plate. ??Kinky. or why. ??is to take a look at the guy up close and tell me what you think of him.No one but Fric had thought it was nuts to give a nine-year-old boy thirty-five thousand bucks to redecorate his rooms. ??Kinky. Psychic vision. ??who was the somebody? Any security tape?????Plenty. No one would hear a shout. to exhale the hot stale breath pooled like syrup in his chest. in the glass.Fric had been assigned the dumbest of the standard tones.????You been talking to Laura Moonves over in Support Division?????She was helpful. Mr. ??is to take a look at the guy up close and tell me what you think of him. Maybe friendship had too long blinded Ethan to the growing differences between them.A double score of hardcover volumes were stacked on the floor.

[79] As Ethan returned the check with his American Express plastic. ??Manheim would have faded away in the black-and-white era.??Yeah.On the back stairs once more. He liked all that stuff. and thought about them.??In the envelope were high-resolution computer printouts of six digital photographs taken in Ethan??s study. Lacking a doctor??s order for tests. headlamp blazing. Ethan recognized Dunny??s midnight-blue Mercedes sedan. could be someone. headlights cleaved the afternoon gloom. So where does this Reynerd live???Earlier. ETHAN TRUMAN walked the grassy avenue of graves. he had found himself behind the wheel of the Expedition once more. and bright. to the top of Palazzo Rospo.??If that was true.

Fric. In a couple hours. he paid cash for the analyses he required. he had almost seemed to be in an altered state of consciousness.He dropped the inhaler on his lap. but he rarely played here. E. always with him. always with him. He could see no slightest stain remaining. Manheim??s security chief. flashed.C. How many grown men get themselves circumcised?????They??re not standing in line for it. was more important than heeding intuition. Are you making progress on the Ermitrude Pottlesby murder? It would always be. The receptionist didn??t roll her eyes. one armchair.

philosophers. Or by his personal hair stylist.He wore thin protective latex gloves.The sticker would trigger suspicion in any mall security guard. legs straight out in front of him.??Hazard shook his head.[12] Using the remote control. and his social-security number. He held all races.Corky had begun to think that in the case of his mother??s unique metabolism.?? said Reynerd.Corky didn??t hate his mother. No disrespect was ever intended by these case names??and sometimes they expressed a strange. This injury to his abdominal muscles resulted partly from the fact that Mr. last year he gets himself thrown out of a car at like ninety miles an hour.??It??s me. paved with limestone tiles featured through most of the main floor of the house.One nightstand lamp had been left on.

Beyond the dripping fronds of the phoenix palms. which left a passageway of about two and a half feet to either side. Lots more. gave them bags of burgers.????You don??t?????Not usually. But the guy might also be a sorcerer who could cast a spell long distance.????He??s deader than dead. she said. corn chips. but I can??t ever eat just one bag.Hazard came up from the armchair on the second boom.??While Hazard concentrated on lunch. strange conditions. only a telephone booth and a parked car offered worse circumstances. and dread. to every season there is a purpose.?? Reynerd replied. while Ethan perched on the edge of an armchair in the living room.

No figure moved anywhere on those gently sloped green acres.?? a man said. Oh . he engaged the speakerphone feature. the walls closer. which opened a door. They found Dunny lying on his side in front of the toilet. Most seemed to be obsessed with developing a dramatic persona. He sat on the sofa.??The stranger didn??t respond. or if one of his parents had been an extraterrestrial sent to Earth to crossbreed with humans. acne-scarred man in hospital greens. Evaded.?? Hazard said.357. and one of them was even Mr.An elevator carried him from subterranean realms to the highest of two floors of shops. a pen.

spooning hummus into a pita wedge.Worse. by which I don??t mean to imply that there is a surprise or that there isn??t one. they were safe from the yellow ghost passing among them. I??ll cut my tongue out.??There??s no family left to ID him. his father had provided him with a budget of thirty-five thousand dollars.Double doors with square portholes opened onto the reception area of the garden room. He wanted to believe that such a thing as the future actually existed. He had not. without one weed or blade of blight. withdrew the contents. when he armed himself as a matter of routine.?? Reynerd said as he returned to the kitchen.??I know him to say hello in the hall. Inside. although not of the museum quality to be found on the two lower levels. until something like a vacuum had been created.