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He didn’t find it peculiar to be talking to her severed hands Her hands had been the essence of her Nothing else of Elizabeth Lavenza had been worth talking about or to The hands were her

CHAPTER 10

the luxe WAS an ornate Deco palace, glamorous in its day, a fit showcase for the rid Berglas down the center aisle, past rows of musty, patched seats

"Damn DVDs screwed the revival business," Jelly said "Ben’s retirement didn’t turn out like he expected"

"Marquee says you’re still open Thursday through Sunday"

"Not since Ben died There’s alh thirty-five-millimeter fanatics to make it hile But some weekends we run up more expenses than receipts I didn’t want to take responsibility for that since it’s becoold and cri mildew "Soyou left the carnival when Ben did?"

"When freak shows took a fade, Ben ot eassu"

Deucalion pointed to a quarter on the floor "Findingto pick up the quarter, Deucalion said, "Heads, you’re out of a job Tails, you’re out of a job"

"Don’t like them odds"

Deucalion snapped the coin into the air, snatched it in ht When he opened his fist, the coin had disappeared

"Neither heads nor tails A sign for sure, don’t you think?"

Instead of relief at having kept his job and ho a dreaifted"

"Just a simple trick"

Jelly said, "I’m maybe a little psychic My dreams sometimes come sorta true"

Deucalion had much he could have said to that, but he re drapes, at the threadbare carpet, at the elaborate ceiling, every-

where but at Deucalion At last he said, "Ben told s that don’t seem they could be real" He finally met Deucalion’s eyes "Do you have two hearts?"

Deucalion chose not to reply

"In the dreaician had two hearts … and he was stabbed in both"

A flutter of wings overhead drew Deucalion’s attention

"Bird got in yesterday," Jelly said "A dove, by the look of it Haven’t been able to chase it out"

Deucalion tracked the trapped bird’s flight He kne it felt

CHAPTER 11

CARSON LIVED ON A tree-lined street in a house nondescript except for a gingerbread veranda that wrapped three sides

She parked at the curb because the garage was packed with her parents’ belongings, which she never found tih

On her way to the kitchen door, she paused under an oak draped with Spanish ht Arnie, her brother, needed a gentle sister So the walk from car to house; she required a rance of jasear Her nerves were twisted as tight as dreadlocks, and her mind raced As never before, the scent of jass had been so gruesome and had occurred in such rapid succession that she could not put the her personal time Under normal circumstances, she was seventy percent cop, thirty percent woman and sister; these days, she was all cop, twenty-four/seven

When Carson entered the kitchen, Vicky Chou had just loaded the dishwasher and switched it on "Well, I screwed up"

"Don’t tell me you put laundry in the dishwasher"

"Worse With his brisket of beef, I gave hireen on the saot an combined"

On a cop’s salary, Carson could not have afforded a live-in caregiver to look after her autistic brother Vicky took the job in return for rooratitude

When Vicky’s sister, Liane, had been indicted with her boyfriend and two others for conspiracy to commit murder, she seemed helplessly snared in a web of evidence She’d been innocent In the process of sending the other three to prison, Carson had cleared Liane

As a successful medical transcriptionist, Vicky worked flexible hours at ho micro-cassettes for physicians If Arnie had been a ht not have been able to keep up with her work, but the boy was mostly quiescent

Widowed at forty, now forty-five, Vicky was an Asian beauty, srieve forever Someday when she least expected it, a ement would end

Carson dealt with that possibility the only way that her busy life allowed: She ignored it

"Other than green and orange together, hoas he today?" Carson asked

"Fixated on the castle Sometimes it seems to calm him, but at other times" Vicky frowned "What is he so afraid of?"

"I don’t know I guesslife"

by re two of the upstairs bedrooest room in the house This seemed only fair because his condition stole frohtstand were shoved into a corner A TV occupied a wheeled metal stand Sometimes he watched cartoons on DVD, the same ones over and over

The remainder of the room had been devoted to the castle

Four low sturdy tables forht-foot platforo blocks

Few boys of twelve would have been able to create a ether a masterpiece: walls and wards, barbi-con and bastions, ramparts and parapets, turreted towers, the barracks, the chapel, the armory, the castle keep with elaborate bulwark and battlements

He’d been obsessed with theit in an intense silence Repeatedly he tore down finished sections only to remodel and improve the to the castle--an access hole in the table arrangement allowed him to build from within the project as well as fro on a wheeled stool Carson rolled a second stool to the table and sat to watch

He was a dark-haired, blue-eyed boy whose looks alone would have ensured him a favored place in the world if he’d not been autistic