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At three o’clock in thebriefly with the tangled sheets He’d drunk a bit too much ith dinner, which was one, but his bladder was killing him; however, it was not merely the call of nature that had disturbed his sleep He’d had a horrible dreahtmare, several dead men--all of them duplicates of Bruno Frye--had risen up from their caskets and fro tables; he had run into the night behind Forever View, but they had co jerkily, calling his name in their flat dead voices

He lay on his back in the darkness, staring at the ceiling which he could not see The only sound was the nearly inaudible purr of the electronic digital clock on the nightstand

Before his wife’s death three years ago, Joshua had seldohtht years But after Cora passed away, all of that changed He dreamed at least once or twice a week now, and more often than not the drea terribly important but indescribable, and there always ensued a frantic but hopeless search for that which he had lost He didn’t need a fifty-dollar-an-hour psychiatrist to tell him that those dreams were about Cora and her untimely death He still had not adjusted to life without her Perhaps he never would The other night dead men who often looked like hiht they all bore a striking reseot out of bed, stretched, yawned He shuffled to the bathroo on a lamp

A couple of minutes later, on his way back to bed, he stopped at theThe panes were cold to the touch A stiff wind pressed against the glass andsounds like an animal that wanted to be let inside The valley was still and dark except for the lights of the wineries He could see the Shade Tree Vineyards to the north, farther up in the hills

Suddenly, his eye was caught by a fuzzy white dot just south of the winery, a single sht in the middle of a vineyard, approxihts in the Frye house? There wasn’t supposed to be anyone there Bruno had lived alone Joshua squinted, but without his glasses, everything at a distance tended to grow hazier the harder he tried to focus on it He couldn’t tell if the light was at the Frye place or at one of the ads between the house and the er he stared the less he was sure that it was a light he atching; it was faint, laht

He went to the nightstand and, not wanting to turn on a lalasses in the dark Before he found theot back to theand looked up into the hills again, the one

Nevertheless, he stood there for a long while, a vigilant guardian He was executor of the Frye estate, and it was his duty to preserve it for final distribution in accordance with the will If burglars and vandals were stripping the house, he wanted to know about it For fifteen ht never returned

At last, convinced that his weak eyes had deceived hi, as Tony and Frank pursued a series of possible leads on Bobby Valdez, Frank talked animatedly about Janet Yaent Janet was so understanding Janet was this, and Janet was that He was a bore on the subject of Janet Yaood to see Frank talking and acting like a nor out their un on the road, Tony and Frank had spoken to two men on the narcotics squad, Detectives Eddie Quevedo and Carl Hammerstein The word from those two specialists was that Bobby Valdez waseither cocne or PCP to support himself while he pursued his unpaid vocation as a rapist The biggestal but extremely popular substances A dealer could still er the round phar traffic, he had to be a pusher, selling directly to users, astructure He was virtually penniless when he got out of prison last April, and he needed substantial capital to become either a manufacturer or an i for is a common street hustler," Quevedo had told Tony and Frank "Talk to other hustlers" Haive you a list of nauys who’ve taken falls for dealing drugs Most of theht them at it yet Put on a little pressure Sooner or later, you’ll find one of them who’s run into Bobby on the street and knohere he’s holed up" There were twenty-four naiven them

Three of the first six men were not at home The other three swore they didn’t know Bobby Valdez or Juan Mazquezza or anyone else with the face in the ene Tucker, and he was able to help them They didn’t even have to lean on him Most black men were actually one shade of brown or another, but Tucker was truly black His face was broad and shter than his skin He had a bushy black beard that was salted with curly white hairs, and that touch of frosting was the only thing about him, other than the whites of his eyes, that was not very, very dark He even wore black slacks and a black shirt He was stocky, with a big chest and bigger arms, and his neck was as thick as a wharf post He looked as if he snapped railroad ties in two for exercise--or h-rent townhouse in the Hollywood Hills, a roomy place that was sparsely but tastefully furnished The living room had only four pieces in it: a couch, two chairs, a coffee table No end tables or fancy storage units No stereo No television set There weren’t even any la fixture But the four pieces that he did have were of reh quality, and each item perfectly accented the others Tucker had a taste for fine Chinese antiques The couch and chairs, which recently had been reupholstered in jade-green velvet, were all made of hand-carved rosewood, a hundred years old, maybe twice that, immensely heavy and well-preserved, matchless examples of their period and style The low table was also roseith a narrow inlaid ivory border Tony and Frank sat on the couch, and Eugene Tucker perched on the edge of a chair opposite the the rosewood arm of the couch and said, "Mr Tucker, this is marvelous"

Tucker raised his eyebrows "You knohat it is?"

"I don’t know the precise period," Tony said "But I’h with Chinese art to know this is definitely not a reproduction that you picked up on sale at Sears"

Tucker laughed, pleased that Tony knew the value of the furniture "I knohat you’re thinking,"

he said good-naturedly "You’re wondering how an ex-con, just two years out of the stir, can afford all this A twelve-hundred-dollar-a- if otten back into the hein trade or some allied field of endeavor"

"In fact," Tony said, "that’s not what I’ how the devil you’ve done it But I know it’s not fro junk"

Tucker s dealer with a passion for Chinese antiques," Tony said, "you’d sile crack, instead of a piece or two at a ti that earns a lot of bread, but not nearly asdope like you used to do"

Tucker laughed again and applauded approvingly He turned to Frank and said, "Your partner is perceptive"

Frank sular Sherlock Holmes"