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I don’t keep azines in my office I’m not a doctor or a dentist so what’s the point? Someone comes to see me and I’m here, we sit down and talk If I’m not here, the door’s locked and they have to wait Sutton didn’t seeuy one day, and now that we’d gotten the potty question and theto say to each other I’m deficient when it comes to small talk, which is probably why I have so few friends

I sat in , and when it did I jumped

It was Cheney "Roosevelt says we can take a couple of cri people up now and should be ready to roll within the hour"

"Great That’s great"

I gave hi about the logistics Alita Lane was too narrow to accoreed tostrip near the polo field on Via Juliana That settled, I dropped Sutton off at his house so he could pick up his car

On the way back to Horton Ravine, I stopped at McDonald’s and scarfed down a Quarter Pounder and fries I wasn’t sure how long the excavation would take and I wanted to make sure I had a wholesome meal under my belt The soft drink I ordered was a s e

I arrived before Cheney did and used the ti shoes I kept in the trunk of ed into that as well The light was still good, but the sun was sinking, taking the pleasant daytime temperatures with it

Sutton arrived in his MG and parked besideHe had the top down and Madaline, the ex-addict, was in the car with hiht and it wasn’t a public spectacle We were dealing with life and death and I didn’t want her hanging around like she was part of the scene Goldie Hawn, Madaline’s golden retriever, sat on her lap, with her chin resting on the loweredI’d swear the dog kneho I was and sent nition Madaline’s circulationplanted on her thighs As I watched, she lifted a beer can to her lips and treated herself to a sip So much for open-container laws

Cheney finally showed up The K-9 handler and cadaver dog were in a separate black-and-white that pulled in beside his car Two minutes later one of the two evidence techs arrived, followed by thein the back It looked like a circus arriving in town,set up for all the folderol to coave Cheney the opportunity to approach the house on the property where they intended to dig He was gone for tento the couple whose hillside they wanted to invade

The rest of us had eed fro strip like extras on ato do, butit Sutton walked Cheney and the techs out to the burial site Madaline and I were relegated to the sidelines while the professionals went to work Two officers returned to the car to pick up traffic cones and the yellow plastic tape that would define the area I wouldn’t be alloithin a fifty-yard radius, so I occupiedwith the canine officer I knew frohborhood souy in his thirties with beefy shoulders and a gut on him that would be a liability in a foot chase By the saed to overtake you, you’d wish you’d run a lot faster because the guy could hand out punishht since I’d seen hiolden Lab he introduced as Belle

Madaline took the occasion to let Goldie Hawn hop out of the car The two dogs went through the usual heinie-s-you routine Anyone who knows s, but I hadn’t felt at all hostile to these two I took this as a sure sign I was getting old Far fro down At this rate, in another few years, the whole world would co in and smother me with kindness

I let Belle sniffI’d seen other people do in the coesture would stave off a sudden snarling attack that would remove half my arm I looked up at Gerald "I pictured a bloodhound or a German shepherd"