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The gate opened into a picturesque brick-paved alleyway, flanked by back fences and garages, shaded here and there by queen palms and y pepper trees Neither Bob Robertson nor anyone else was afoot as far as I could see in either direction

Returning through the woodlet, I half expected hi to catch rove, he nized that I re­mained alert, for he didn’t risk an assault

When I reached the back porch, I stopped, turned, and studied the pocket forest Birds flew fro, but only as if taking a last flight before sunset

In the kitchen again, I closed the door I engaged the deadbolt lock And the security chain

I peered through the panes in the upper half of the door Peaceful, the woods And still

When I returned to the living room with the bottle of Cabernet, half the cheese had disappeared from the canape plate, and Little Ozzie was still ensconced in his commodious chair, where he hi on his throne "Dear Odd, I was beginning to think you’d stepped through a ward­robe into Narnia"

I told him about Robertson

"You mean," Ozzie said, "that he was here, in lass

"Doing what?"

"Probably standing in the hall, just beyond that archway, listening to us talk"

"That’s dalass, striving hard to re­press the palsy of fear that would have trembled my hands, I said, "No more bold than I hen I slipped into his house to poke through his drawers"

"I suppose not But then you’re on the side of the gods, and this bastard sounds like a giant albino cockroach on a day pass from Hell"

Terrible Chester had moved froe reen as those of a sche demon

"If I were you," Ozzie advised, "I would sit elsewhere" He indi­cated the bottle of wine "Won’t you have a second glass?"

"Haven’t quite finishedStoret up"

"Don’t tell an the process of disengaging his bulk frory

jaws of an exotic flesh-eating plant, had closed with considerable suc­tion around his thighs and buttocks

"Sir, it’s really not necessary"

"Don’t tell me what’s necessary, you presuardless of how unnecessary itbeen seated for a while, his cooes sheet-white I’ from a chair should tax him so much

Fortunately, his face neither flushed nor paled this time Perhaps fortified by the wine and burdened by only half a plate of cheese, he was on his feetitself froh of treacherous sand

"Now that you’re up," I said, "I think you should lock the door be­hindis resolved Don’t answer the bell unless you can see who rang it"

"I’m not afraid of hians are hard to reach with either blade or bullet And I know a few things about self-defense"

"He’s dangerous, sir He ht have controlled himself so far, but when he cracks, he’ll be so vicious that he’llnews from Paris to Japan I’m scared of hiered hand "Unlike you, I’ve got a gun More than one"

"Start keeping them handy I’m so sorry to have drawn hi stuck to your shoe that you didn’t knoas there"

Each tis s a beloved son, as neither of us was ever hugged by his father

And every tiile in spite of his forly thin Ozzie within thesteadily crushed by the lay­ers that life has troweled upon hi at the open front door, he said, "Give Stor her around to bear witness to my beautiful exploded cow and the villainy it represents"

"She’ll be appalled She’ll need wine We’ll bring a bottle"

"No need I have a full cellar"

I waited on the porch until he closed the door and until I heard the deadbolt being engaged

As I negotiated the cow-strewn front walk and then rounded the Mustang to the driver’s door, I surveyed the quiet street Neither Robertson nor his dusty Ford Explorer was to be seen

In the car, when I switched on the engine, I suddenly expected to be blown up like the Holstein I was too jumpy

I followed a twisty route from Jack Flats to St Bartholo a tail plenty of oppor­tunities to reveal himself All the traffic behind me seemed to be inno­cent of the intent to pursue Yet I felt watched

EIGHTEEN

PICO MUNDO IS NOT A SKYSCRAPER TOWN THE RECENT construction of a five-story aparttime resi­dents dizzy with an unwanted sense ofand led to editorials in the Maravilla County Tiht," and worried about a future of "heartless canyons of bleak design, in which people are reduced to the status of drones in a hive, and into which the sun never fully reaches"

The Mojave sun is not a timid little Boston sun or even a don’t-worry-be-happy Caribbean sun The Mojave sun is a fierce, aggressive beast that isn’t going to be intis

Counting its tower and the spire that sits atop the tower, St Bartholomew’s Church is by far the tallest structure in Pico Mundo Soht, under the barrel-tile roofs, the white stucco walls glow like the panes in a stor before sunset on this Tuesday in August, the western sky blazed orange, steadily deepening toward

red, as though the sun ounded and bleeding in its retreat The white walls of the church took color from the heavens, and appeared to be full of holy fire

Stormy waited for me in front of St Bart’s She sat on the top step, beside a picnic hamper

She had traded her pink-and-white Burke & Bailey’s uniform for sandals, white slacks, and a turquoise blouse She had been cute then; she was ravishing now

With her raven hair and jet-black eyes, she ht have been the bride of a pharaoh, swept forward in tiypt In her eyes are mysteries to rival those of the Sphinx and those of all the pyr­amids that ever were or ever will be excavated froCrank it shut, griddle boy This is a church"

I snatched up the picnic hamper and, as she rose to her feet, I kissed her on the cheek

"On the other hand, that was a little too chaste," she said

"Because that was a kiss from Little Ozzie"

"He’s sweet I heard they blew up his cow"

"It’s a slaughterhouse, plastic Holstein splattered everywhere you look"