Page 53 (1/2)

"You figure out what that thing was, floatin’ around in the Sullivan house?"

"I don’t know any more than you, Drake Just weird, that’s all This town, you know"

"You know there was a cop, a detective that went uy? Started ranting about the end of the world, then vanished like a puff of smoke?"

"I think I heard about that"

Drake said, "You knoas the very last person he interrogated before he went ht And they never found hi-term mental or physical health, Drake Check the suicide rate And I’ll tell you souy before he went off the edge is the same look I see in yours now

Out loud I said, "Why are you here, Drake?"

"I need a ht"

"Okay"

"Why don’t you reco fun"

I reached over and plucked the first movie off a pile of returns to my left Mulholland Drive, some David Lynchon the case of this one Alet stolen

"Here," I said "This is a good one"

"It’s so him up and he sidled from the counter Drake put his hand on the door as I picked up another DVD and let out the breath I had been holding Then, just as he was stepping out into the cold, I heardtoday, was there?"

He stopped, and turned He let his gaze stay on onna re, you stupid fuck

"No reason," I said I recovered with, "Whatever happened to Amy, I didn’t want it to happen to somebody else"

"Yeah"

He waited for aelse to say, but turned and walked out instead My cell phone rang Everybody had taken to downloading songs to replace the ringers on their cell phones butto worry about I pulled it from my pants pocket and saw John’s name on the display I answered, "Hello?"

"I TOLD YOU TO LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE, VINNY!"

"You called ht Sorry Have you seen the trees? Isn’t it pretty?"

"That guy caht He ca to think it wasn’t"

"Did you kill hiof which, did you find out about the you-knohat in your toolshed? As in, a name?"

"No, the dead body in et back to work What do you need?"

"You gotta leave the store"

"I can’t, I’m the only one here"

"Close the store, then Close the store and get outta there"

"What? Why?"

"You’ll see Meet onna believe this shit"

"THE SAFE HOUSE" was our code name for Denny’s

I arrived and saw John at a far corner booth, a bundle of papers in his hand, a pair of boobs next to hiirl with the electric blue eyes and short hair and the peasant skirts, nor was it Angie, the sexy librarian girl with the dark-rilasses and ponytails and capri pants It wasn’t Nina, with the crireen streaks in her hair, or Nicky the Bitch

This one was Marcy Oh, Marcy Contrary to the wisdoay men who run the fashion industry (who, coincidentally, prefer their feirl I ever saw in real life weighed probably one hundred and fifty pounds And her nairl Rusty reddish-brown hair, about the same color as Molly’s, wide cobalt-blue eyes that looked at you like you were the reeted each other Out of the corner of my eye, off to the left of Marcy’s boobs, John waved around the papers and said, "You gotta read this"

At thatand I took the papers froht T-shirt that said, I SWAM THE NAKED MILE! Marcy was one of those girls who seemed to have an endless supply of stories that involved some kind of hilarious sexual misadventure and/or accidental nudity I took the papers froht ain, and held up the papers to obscure the supple swell of her boso of the chat Aot abducted last ti," John said "I stopped by to, you know, make sure she was still there She was pretty freaked out, reading that"

I read, but didn’t understand until the last third or so and, at that point, everything changed

This, I thought, is the end One way or another, this is gonna be the end

CHAPTER 13

The Chat Transcript

JOHNNY_5 HAS LOGGED OUT

{faierydust} asshole

{MustacheGirl} Still there girl?

{faierydust} hes banned

{EVLNYMPH} dialup sux

{a?

{faierydust} this is the creepiest thing ive ever done

{MustacheGirl} You should look out theSee if there’s lights

{EVLNYMPH} stop with the ufo thing

{MustacheGirl} Have you thought about getting hypnotized? They can recall hts

{ao to have that done

{aet ht

{EVLNYMPH} iaht now i read a book about a navy ship that disappeared

{EVLNYMPH} they found it latr but the creas all gone and souys turned up hundreds of miles a/no memory

{EVLNYMPH} they think it was sum kind of time pocket or somethin

{faierydust} oh shit

{amy_sullivan} that was a movie the philadelphia experiment

{MustacheGirl} Yes

{faierydust} it had toave him aids

{MustacheGirl} The h

{a

{amy_sullivan} she jumps up on my bed and stares at me til i take her out

{MustacheGirl} I assu

{EVLNYMPH} i on music the quiet is freakin