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"Yes"

"Good The doctor’s talking about releasing you to--"

"So soon?"

"They need the bed I’ll see if I can talk the cops into waiting until you’re hoht here, handcuff you to the rail, and post a cop outside the door Whichever way it goes, remember these tords Shut Up"

Walker shook his head, saying "Shit" under his breath

"In the meantime, you’d be smart to put yourself in rehab, at least o into rehab I have a fas a week miniuy renouncing his sins and repenting his evil ways"

"Are you going to get me out of this mess?"

"Probably not, but I’m the best hope you have," Herschel said "If it’s any coo to trial for another three to sixof which, I need a check"

"How et to court, we’re talking twenty-five hundred dollars a day, plus the cost of expert witnesses"

Walker kept his expression neutral, not wanting to give Herschel the satisfaction of seeing his diss I don’t keep cash like that in et out?"

"Have Carolyn take care of it Nice seeing you"

13

Monday, April 11, 1988

Peephole, California, is essentially two blocks long and ten blocks wide, a stone’s throw from the Pacific Ocean A Southern Pacific Railroad track runs parallel to the 101, separating the town from the beach A tunnel runs under both the train tracks and the highway,to walk hunched over through a da fifty yards of culvert At the northernmost end of town there’s a banana far no-naas and a fresh-produce stand that’s closed for nal and slowed, eyes pinned on the rearviewintotraffic, I turned off the highway and crossed the tracks, which put ht of me and half to the left The ebb and flow of the surf and the surging and receding waves of cars on the highway created a hush of white noise There was so tour was brief because there wasn’t much to see The streets were narrow and there were no sidewalks There were roughly 125 hoinal sues still stood, probably tricked out by noith proper insulation, forced-air furnaces, air-conditioning units, and triple-glazed s These were people with storage proble from boat hulls to broken birdbaths to old suitcases Discarded furniture had been tossed off the porch steps, perhaps awaiting a sweep by the alley fairies

I turned onto Zarina Avenue, checked the house nule-and-adobe house with a crudely constructed chi white-painted picket fence staggered around the property, enclosing a length of gravel driveway bordered by patches of overgrown grass A chicken-wire fence surrounded the vestiges of a garden planted in winter vegetables A shaggy-coated yellow rel roused hi his tail Theover his faceI’d encountered in the past week, and I could feel ood-natured crew, and as long as none of the, or slobbered o’ermuch, I was happy to make their acquaintance This one followed me to the front door and watched expectantly as I knocked on the fra at me now and then to shoas attentive to the plan and supportive of my aims

The man who opened the door had to have been descended from one of the blue-eyed Irish-Hispanic clan who’d prospered in Peephole since the mid-1800s His hair was the color of new bricks, clipped short and threaded with gray He was tall and thin, broad-shouldered, with ropy ested hours in the sun His jeans orn and rode low on his hips, and his blue denim shirt had a rip in one sleeve I placed him at the north end of sixty