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This wasn’t the first tiift included the power to heal

Band-Aid applied, I returned to the Chevy Sitting behind the wheel, engine running, air-conditioning vents aied cold Pepsi

Only bad news on my atch - 10:48

My muscles ached My eyes were sore I felt tired, weak Maybe ear, as they seeo one-on-one with Robertson’s kill buddy, who ht’s sleep than I had

I’d taken two caffeine tablets nodoo more Besides, already the acid in th sufficient to etch steel, and I had grown simultaneously exhausted and juh I had no person - no nanetisht to a place of enlightenment

The brilliant Mojave day burned at white-hot ferocity The air itself seeht, less than eight and a halfus nothingof our iht flashing off the windshield seelasses The searing glare soon spawned a headache that made a fork in the brow see aiuide me, [ found myself in Shady Ranch, one of the newer residential de­velopo were hoerous than rattlesnakes Now people lived here, and perhaps one of the mass murder in upper-middle-class suburban comfort

Shady Ranch had never been a ranch of any kind; it wasn’t one now, unless you counted houses as a crop As for shade, these hills en­joyed less of it than hborhoods in the heart of town because the trees were far from maturity

I parked in ine I needed tiather my nerve for this encounter

Like those who lived in it, this Mediterranean-style house had little character Below the red-tile roof, orna angles arrived at less by architec­tural genius than by the dictates of lot size and shape

Leaning closer to a dashboard vent, I closed hts drifted across the backs of ely soothing for a moment - until the wound in Robertson’s chest rose froot out of the car, went to the house, and rang , he was likely to be home He had never worked a day in his life and seldom rose before nine or ten o’clock

My father answered, surprised to see "

"No," I agreed "Didn’t call"

My father is forty-five, a handsome man with thick hair still more black than silver He has a lean athletic body of which he is proud to the point of vanity

Barefoot, he wore only khaki shorts slung low across his hips His tan had been assiduously cultivated with oils, enhanced with toners, preserved with lotions

"Why have you come?" he asked

"I don’t know"

"You don’t look well"

He retreated one step from the door He fears illness

"I’m not sick," I assured him "Just bone tired No sleep May I coetting ready to catch some rays"

Whether that was an invitation or not, I interpreted it as one, and I crossed the threshold, pulling the door shut behind me

"Britney’s in the kitchen," he said, and led me to the back of the house

The blinds were drawn, the rooms layered with suht It’s beautifully furnished My fa­ther has style and loves coenerous monthly check supports a lifestyle that h he has much, he yearns for more He desires to live far better than he does, and he chafes at ters and forbid him access to the principal

His parents had been wise to settle their estate on hiet his hands on the principal, he would long ago have been destitute and hoet-rich-quick sche the sale of land on the e his own fortune, he would be impatient with a ten- or fifteen-percent return on investreat su his , with restaurant-quality equiph he eats out six or seven nights a week Maple floor, ship’s-style ranite counters, and stainless-steel appliances contribute to a sleek and yet inviting a in a way that makes your skin crawl When we entered the kitchen, she was standing hipshot at a , sipping aout at sun ser­pents sinuously flexing across the surface of the swih to excite the jaded editors of Hustler, but she wore it well enough to make the cover of the Sports Illustrated swier This is my father’s basic cri­terion in women They are never older than twenty, and they always look younger than they are

So with a sixteen-

year-old He claie An expensive at­torney plus payoffs to the girl and her parents spared hinity of a prison pallor and jail haircuts

Instead of a greeting, Britney gave me a sullen, dismissive look She returned her attention to the sun-dappled swiht give me money that would otherwise be spent on her This concern has no validity He would never offer me a buck, and I would never take it

She would be better advised to worry about two facts: first, that she has been with e du­ration of one of his affairs is six to nine , she would soon seem old to him

Fresh coffee had been brewed I asked for a cup, poured it myself, and sat on a bar stool at the kitchen island

Always restless inout Britney’s cha a counter that didn’t need to be wiped, straightening the chairs at the breakfast table

"I’ married on Saturday," I said

This surprised hiretted it within hours of exchanging vows Marriage doesn’t suit hiirl?" he asked

"Yes"

"Is that a good idea?"

"It’s the best idea I’ve ever had"

Britney turned away from theto study ift, a parental boon, and she was prepared to defend her interests

She didn’t stir in er She saddened me, for I could see her deeply unhappy future without need of any sixth sense