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"Later, when they’re leaving the office, she says to Mookie, ‘No ering the locket The wind…the chione through chemo Didn’t say a word about the cancer"

"Maybe Lottie told theested

"Not very likely, is it?"

Twenty years ago, Lottie had lost her only child to cancer Five years later, her husband died of the sanancy As if cancer were the secret and the truest name of the devil, which would conjure him in a sulfurous cloud even if whispered, Lottie never spoke of the disease

"The girl says to Mookie, ‘No more cancer,’ and then she says, ‘It won’t coe child," Aht beautiful"

"I haven’t seen her myself"

"Beautiful but bruised," Aht"

"What?"

"About Baiko’s cancer"

"I suspect she is," Amy said "I’m sure she is"

She stood by the driver’s door of her Expedition and watched Dani Chiboku drive aith the two latest rescues

The day reer feel its warlare off the Expedition

When A clouds seee was co She didn’t knohat it would be, but she kneould not be a change for the better

She did not like change She wanted continuity and the peace that cas saved and passed to loving ho, and she was afraid

Chapter 29

The client aiting for them east of Lake Elsinor, out where the merciless desert had met its match in the relentless tract-house builders

Bobby Onions drove them to the rendezvous in his cool Land Rover because no way in hell would he ride in Vernon Lesley’s Chevy, which Bobby called "heels, a loser that every time he needed an extra hand, Bobby was available for hire, which suggested that clients were not standing in line outside Onions Investigations

Inexplicably, the freeway traffic was light Whatever the reason, Vern knew the explanation wasn’t that the Rapture had occurred, that the saved had been taken straight to Heaven

Mrs Bonnaventura, who lived in the crappy apartment next to Vern’s crappy apartment, believed in the imminence of the Rapture Housebound by es close to her: a wheeled tank of oxygen, which she received through nasal cannula, and a s that she had packed for the e of underwear, photos of dead loved ones-family and friends-whom Mrs Bonnaventura intended to track doithout delay upon reaching Paradise, and breath en tank in Heaven, where she would be restored to her youth, and she couldn’t explain to Vern why she packed the underwear or the breath mints She’d said, "I just don’t want to take any chances, it would be so e God, Mrs Bonnaventura glowed The prospect of a divine howdy-do delighted her

Vern didn’t believe in the Rapture, and he was neutral on the existence of God But one thing he knew for sure: If God existed,that you’d probably die a second tiht

Even someone like Mrs Bonnaventura, who had lived a mostly blameless life, when ushered into the awesome presence of the Creator of the infinite universe and also of the butterfly, would discover ten thousand fearso in the word humility

Mrs Bonnaventura said God was pure love, as if this quality of the Lord hty event, as if it would be like-but even nicer than-ured that if God existed, a God of pure love, then for sure there had to be a Purgatory, because you would need a place of purification before you dared go upstairs for the Ulti directly from this life to God’s presence, would detonate as violently as antiVern’s theologicalthe back of his neck with the other, Bobby Onions said, "So what’s the story with the bounce?"

"Bounce?"

"The woman"

"What woman?" Vern wondered

"What wo"

"You said so, you call a ating her anymore"

"So why do you call her the bounce?"

"When a woht places to bounce in the right way, she’s hot A bounce is a sexy lady"

"What do you call a sexy guy?" Vern asked

"I don’t find guys sexy" Bobby frowned He put both hands on the wheel and sat up straighter "You don’t find guys sexy, do you?"

"No Hell, no Don’t talk crazy"

"So what is this Von Longwood business?" Bobby asked

"What do you mean? He’s my avatar In Second Life"

"I don’t know about that"

"I told you Don’t you listen?"

"You’re always talking about hi He’s an avatar, like a cartoon version ofinto the desert glare as they turned onto an exit ramp, Bobby said, "It sounds kinky to auys-one dressed up like a nurse, the other like a Nazi, then they’d go at each other"

"Not that kind of role-playing It’s cool Go on-line, look up Second Life, educate yourself"

"I don’t need the Internet I’ve already got me a life, and it’s packed full I don’t need a play life"

Sio left"

Cottonwoods and clusters of wild oleander thrived along a dry strearew other than withered rass

"Howcar?" Bobby asked, punctuating the question with a swith some pride, "A hundred fifty thousand Linden dollars"

"What’s a Linden dollar?"

"That’s the money you buy to spend in Second Life Linden Labs, they started Second Life"

"How much is that in real money?"

"Six hundred bucks"

"You paid six hundred bucks for a cartoon car? No wonder you drive a losermobile in your real life"

Vern almost said My second life is my real life, but he knew a Philistine like Bobby would never understand

Instead, he said, "So which is the real you-Bobby Onions or Barney Sraveled shoulder of the road, but then found the paveain

"You sonofabitch," said Barney-Bobby "You investigated onna hire to back ed your naot your PI license I’ve known it since the first case you worked with me"

"In a parae is i doesn’t sound like a guy with gonads"

"Compared to Vernon Lesley, it sounds totally kick-ass"

"You’ll be ht turn in about half a mile"