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Da was old enough to have lath and plaster construction instead of drywall, and in places the lath showed through like brittle bones between ragged gaps in the desiccated flesh of some ancient pharaoh’s mummified body Splintered floorboards had torn loose; they were scattered half the length of the corridor, revealing the subfloor and in so up The snuffing force of the blast had prevented anything fro fire The thin haze of smoke from the explosion didn’t reduce visibility, except that it stung his eyes and ht
Harry breathed through hisThe acrid haze was a bitterness on his tongue
Eight doors opened off the hall, four on each side, including the one that had been blown entirely frolance, Harry and Connie moved in concert from the top of the stairs, careful not to step in any of the holes in the floor, heading toward the open doorway They had to inspect the second level quickly Every as potentially an escape route, and the building ht have back stairs
"Elvis"’ The shout calanced at Connie, and they both hesitated because there was a weirdness about the h other people ht have been on the second floor before the perp had arrived, so! The Master ofMeinphis!"
They flanked the doorway as they had done at the foot of the statrs
The perp began shouting titles of Presley hits: "Heartbreak Hotel, Blue Suede Shoes, Hound Dog Jailhouse"
Harry looked at Connie, raised one eyebrow She shrugged
"Stuck on You, Little Suter, Good Luck Chad"
Harry signaled to Connie that he would go through the door first, staying low, relying on her to lay down a suppressing fire over his head as he crossed the threshold
’Are You Lonesoht, A Mess of Blues, In the Ghetto!"
As Harry was about to renade arced out of the room
It bounced on the hall floor between him and Connie, rolled, and disappeared into one of the holes made by the first explosion
No tiet back to the stairs If they delayed, the corridor would blow up around theh the blasted doorway into the roo off a couple of rounds He followed her, firing twice over her head, and both of them clattered across the shattered door that had been torn off its hinges and blon in the first explosion Boxes
Supplies Stacked everywhere No sign of the perp They both dropped to the floor, thr themselves down and between piles of boxes
They were still dropping, scra, when the hallent to pieces in a flash and a crash behind them Harry tucked his head under his arht a stor fixture on the ceiling dissolved into glass hail
Breathing the fireworks stink again, Harry raised his head A wickedlooking piece of wooden shrapnelas big as the blade of a butcher’s knife, thicker, almost as sharhad e carton of paper napkins
The thin film of sweat on his face was as cold as icewater
He tipped the expended cartridges from the revolver, fumbled the speedloader from its pouch and slipped it in, twisted it, dropped it, snapped the cylinder shut
"Return to Sender, Suspicious Minds, Surrender!"
Harry was pierced by a longing for the simple, direct, and comprehensible villains of the Brothers Grimm, like the evil queen who ate the heart of a wild boar, thinking it was really the heart of her stepdaughter, Snow White, whose beauty she envied and whose life she had ordered forfeited
Connie raised her head and glanced at Harry, as lying beside her
He was covered with dust, chips of wood, and gIilass, as she no doubt was herself
She could see that he wasn’t getting off on this the way she was
Harry liked being a cop; to him a cop was a symbol of order and justice Madness like this pained hih violence equal to what the perpetrator dealt out
And real justice for the victione that he couldn’t feel reged Giil, All Shook Up, Baa Don’t Get Hooked on Me!"
Connie whispered: "Elvis Presley didn’t sing ’Baby Don’t Get Hooked on Me"’ Harry blinked "What?"
"That was Mac Davis, for God’s sake"
"RockaHula Baa Kentucky Rain, Flaeek’s voice see from overhead
Cautiously Connie eased up from the floor, revolver in hand She peered between the stacked boxes, then over the trapdoor was open A folding ladder extended fro Hunk o’ Love, Ki’s Me Quick, Guitar Man!"
The walking piece of dog vo at theeek and smash his face in, which was not a measured police response, perhaps, but heartfelt
Harry spotted the ladder when she did, and as she rose to her feet, he stood beside her She was tense, ready to hit the floor again fast if another grenade dropped out of that overhead trap
’Any W You Want Me, Poor B Running Bear:"’ "Hell, that wasn’t Elvis, either," Connie said, not bothering to whisper anyBear
"What does it rily, which was not exactly an answer But the truth was, she didn’t knory it bothered her that this loser couldn’t get his Elvis trivia correct
"You’re the Devil in Disguise, Don’t Cry Daddy, Do the Clam!" in ’Do the Clam’?" Harry said
Connie winced "Yeah, I’m afraid that was Elvis"
As sparks squirted froht fixture overhead, they crossed the roo in on the attic access
From the world beyond the duststreaked , faraway sirens wailed
Backup and aone into the attic, it as, lob up a concussion grenade to stun him senseless, and just wait for reinforcements
But she rejected the cautious course While it would be safer for her and Harry, it could be riskier for everyone else in don Laguna Beach The attic ive the creep a way out
Evidently Harry had the saht He hesitated a fraction of a second less than she did, and started up the ladder first