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He could not, however, expect to find one of the irises and pupils He was not confident, either, about the probability of locating any street person who could manifest himself out of a dust devil, or explode into a collection of ined the encounter
That was a possibility Harry was loath to consider The pursuit and execuiionø of Jaard had been trauard’s bloody rae was sufficiently stressful to cause hallucinations replete with dirty fingernails and killer halitosis
If the filthy giant was real, where had he coone, who had he been, what disease or birth defect had left hi eyes?
Ticktock, ticktock, you’ll be all ine
Paperwork awaited hily tedious, with blanks to fill in and boxes to check A neatly typed file would reduce the raphs of words on clean white paper, and then none of it would seem as inexplicable as it did at that moment
He wouldn’t include the cri to do with Ordegard Besides, he didn’t want to give Connie or anyone else in Special Projects a reason to ly in a coat and tie, being disdainful of foul language in a profession rife with it, going by the book at all ti obsessive about the neatness of his case files already et of their huht type up a report about the hobo, just for hi order to the bizarre experience and putting it behind him
"Lyon," he said,his own eyes in the rearview mirror, "you are a ridiculous speci world solidified
The afternoon sky was so overcast that the streetlamps, which were operated by a solarsensitive switch, were deceived by the false twilight The paveutters were full of fasthway, but instead of turning east on Crown Valley Parkway toward Special Projects, he kept going He passed Kitz Cove, then the turnoff for the KitzCarlton Hotel, and drove all the way into Dana Point
When he pulled up in front of Enrique Estephan’s house, he was soh subconsciously he had knohere he was headed
The house was one of those charalows built in the ’4Os or early ’505, before soulless stucco tract homes had become the architecture of choice Decoratively carved shutters, scalloped fascia, and a ave it character Rain drizzled off the fronds of the big date pal a brief lull in the downpour, he left the car and ran up the ay By the time he cli down hard again There was no wind any ht of the rain suppressed it
Shadoaited like a gathering of old friends on the front porch, areen canvas cushions Even on a sunny day the porch would be comfortably cool, for it was sheltered by densely interwoven, redflowering bougainvillaea that festooned a trellis and spread across the roof
He put his thu of the rain, heard soft chimes inside the house
A sixinch lizard skittered across the porch floor to the steps, and out into the storm
Harry waited patiently Enrique EstefanRicky to his friends did notopen, Ricky squinted out through the screen door, clearly not happy to be disturbed Then he grinned and said, "Harry, good to see you" He opened the screen door, stepped aside
"Really good to see you"
"I’ them on the porch
"That’s not necessary," Ricky said
Harry entered the house in his stocking feet
"Still the most considerate man I ever unandhandcuff set"
They shook hands Enrique Estefan’s grip was firh his hand was hot, dry, leathery, padded with too little flesh, ales It was als with a skeleton
"Come on in the kitchen," Ricky said
Harry followed him across the polishedoak floor Ricky shuffled, never entirely lifting either foot
The short hallas illu in fro in a ruby glass
The candle was part of a shrine to the Holy Mother that was set up on a narrow table against one wall Behind it was a mirror in a silverleafed fralilass
"How’ve you been, Ricky?"
"Pretty good You?"
"I’ve had better days," Harry adht, Ricky seemed several inches shorter because he leaned forward as if progressing against a wind, his back rounded, the sharp lines of his shoulder blades poking up proainst his paleyellow shirt From behind, his neck looked scrawny
The back of his skull appeared as fragile as that of an infant
The kitchen was bigger than expected in a bungalow and a lot cheerier than the hallway: Mexicantile floor, knottypine cabinetry, a largelooking onto a spacious backyard A Kenny G number was on the radio The air was heavy with the rich aroma of coffee
"Like a cup?" Ricky asked
"If it’s not any trouble"
"No trouble at all Just ot a cup and saucer from one of the cabinets and poured coffee, Harry studied him He orried by what he saw
Ricky’s face was too thin, draith deeply carved lines at the corners of his eyes and fraed as if it had lost nearly all elasticity His eyes were rheumy Maybe it was only a backsplash of color from his shirt, but his white hair had an unhealthy yellow tint, and both his face and the whites of his eyes exhibited a hint of jaundice
He had lostloosely on him His belt was cinched to theølast hole, and the seat of his pants drooped like an empty sack
Enrique Estefan was an old er than Harry, but he was an old man just the same
Much of the time, the blind woman lived not merely in darkness but in another world quite apart from the one into which she had been born
Sohtest fantasy with pink and ahrise apartments, Bel Air estates with vast verdant lawns In these settings she was the queen and ultimate rulerr a famous actress, fashion model, acclai, C ro At other tieons, dank and dripping catacoray and bleak as the craters of the moon, populated by monstrous andand afraid, neither powerful nor famous, often cold and naked
Occasionally her interior world lacked concreteness, was only a domain of colors and sounds and aroh it, wondering and aht, Nilsson, Marvin Gaye, Jim Croce, the voices of her tis, a light show so dazzling that the real world could never produce its equal
Even during one of those aic country within her head could darken and becorew clotted and somber; theswept away by an icy and turbulent river, choking on its bitter waters, struggling for breath but finding none, then breaking the surface and gasping in lungsful of sour air, frantic, weeping, praying for delivery to a warm dry shore
Once in a while, as now, she surfaced from the false worlds within her and became aware of the reality in which she actually existed
Muffled voices in adjacent rooms and hallways The squeak of rubbersoled shoes The pine scent of disinfectant, ent odor of urine She addled in crisp, clean sheets, cool against her fevered flesh
When she disentangled her right hand fro and reached out blindly, she found the cold steel safety railing on the side of her hospital bed
At first she was preoccupied by the need to identify a strange sound
She did not try to rise up, but held fast to the railing and was perfectly still, listening intently to what initially seereat crowd in a far arena No Not a crowd Fire The chucklingwhisperinghissing of an allconsunized the fire for what it was: its opposite, the quenching downpour of a htlybut then a rustle arose nearby, and she froze again, wary "Who’s there?" she asked, and was surprised that her speech was thick and slurred
"Ah, Jennifer, you’re with us"
"Jennifer My name is Jennifer The voice had been that of a wo
Jennifer alnized the voice, knew she had heard it before, but she was not calmed
"Who are you?" she demanded, disconcerted that she was unable to rid herself of the slur
"It’s Margaret, dear"
The tread of rubbersoled shoes, approaching
Jennifer cringed, half expecting a blow but not sure why