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"You sure kno to show a girl a good ti for ular person and Candy was a regular girl and this was a regularher, but we’re not and this isn’t She looks at

"I should probably give doc a call and let hiht"

"Yeah He’s probably worried"

"You look like you’re going sora I’o with you"

"No," I say "I could be wrong If I am, I want someone here I can trust to look out for theet going"

She looks at theup now

"I’ ho to tell hi But I want you to know that I’m not sorry for e did"

"Me neither," I say "The one good thing about an aard er we stand here torturing each other, the il nervous nellies to pee themselves"

Candy ss here"

"Thanks"

I take the sawed-off froh a shadow behind the dead icians Still the best first date ever

THE PHONE BOOTH outside the Orange Grove Bungalows hasn’t changed o, except that now there’s a guy living in it

The Orange Grove is a collection of about two dozen small cabins that were twenty years past their prime before I went Don Now they look like a condo colass in front of the check-in counter has had a good workout In eleven years, no one’s painted anything or cleaned the pool There are things wiggling down in the stagnant backwash that I don’t even reo to lose their virginity on proht

There’s one specific cabin where we used to party, but I can’t remember the number I walk up and down the concrete ay that snakes between the cabins It’s New Year’s Eve, so the place is crawling with skinny hookers with black ht A lot of sarettes There’s a lotplastic stink of bad crack Those are the least offensive

I spot the badness near the back of the third row It looks just like the others, but to y fields around theand front door are brighter and the colors are more intense than the rest of the cabin When I put iant cartoon version of the bear trap, and snaps at me When the civilian hookers and their Johns wander by, nothing happens A tired looking hooker, in a s, wanders by alone

I say, "Hey, darlin’, want to ht, honey"

"No hanky-panky I’ on that door real loud"

"How much?"

I pull out a wad of Muninn’s money What the Hell It’s New Year’s

"Five hundred dollars"

Suddenly Miss Done for Tonight is all smiles

"Hell, I’d suck the shine off the doorknob for that"

I give her the money and she stuffs it in an inside jacket pocket in case I changeon the door as hard as you can and take off"

I leave her by the door and go around to the back of the cabin

I hold up my hand, drop it, and say, "Now!"

The hooker takes a step forward and gives the door six or seven good raps She looks at et the hell out of there Then I step through a shadow into the rooh it fast and to the Door of Memory I make sure the sawed-off is still there I left it by the door when I ca that Parker would have spells up that could detect weapons

Through the door and into the cabin Parker is up front, hands on the door, trying to feel who’s out there

I’ra and Vidocq are on the floor, their mouths closed with duct tape and their hands tied in front of theer to er behind the toilet I grab it and sprint at Parker Just before I reach hier’s wooden handle and bury the sharp end of the bigger piece in his back

Parker screaainst the far wall

Parker turns and sainst the wall so that the sharp end of the wooden handle punches all the way through and comes out his chest Then he reaches up, pulls it out, and drops it on the floor

"How fun is that, huh? That’s the kind of thing you would do Mason knew you’d find me, so he juiced me with a Kissi power enema Is this how you feel, Sandman Slim? It’s like I could tear the world apart with my hands Let me show you"

I bark a Hellion phrase and Parker sinks halfway into the carpet, which is sucking him down like quicksand

Parker isn’t shocked or scared He presses his hands into thecarpet, whispers a feords, and the quicksand reverses itself, pushing hiet out of the way, he throws one of the plas on Rodeo Drive Hits h that so the wall bowed out The body arot hit by the same meteor that killed the dinosaurs