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"What for?"

"I don’t know She told me, but it went in one ear and out the other It didn’t sound all that urgent"

"What did you tell her?"

"I didn’t tell her anything I hung up on her"

He thought about it, wondering what he’d ator ith Dad?"

"Why are you askingto et her na odd"

"Kinsey?"

"You re ether," he said, distracted "What did she want again?"

"Walker, I just told you I have no idea So more than that"

The floor shifted under his feet For a ht there’d been a terabbed the counter with Carolyn looking on like he was losing it

He murmured an excuse and left the house, not even sure later how he got to the car He felt like he’d been walking, looking in the other direction, and sla the blood drain out of his head, taking his blood pressure down along with it His body was shot through with a clamminess that carried nausea in its wake The outside air helped He leaned against the car, feeling shaken to the core

Brent slaht, Mr McNally?"

"I’"

Walker got in the backseat Brent fired up the engine and was on the verge of pulling ahen Carolyn called from the front door and then trotted down to the car Walker lowered the rear

"You forgot the mail," she said She leaned down to look at hiht? The way you bolted out of there, I thought you’d seen a ghost"

Walker wanted to e and he didn’t want to make a scene He took the mail and dropped it on the seat beside him "Fuck you," he said under his breath He pushed the switch that rolled theup so Carolyn was forced to yell through the glass

"Fine I’ Ocean Way toward the stone pillars at the rear of Horton Ravine

Walker said, "On my way back to the Pelican, I’d like to see et there"

"No problelanced out theand realized they were passing Jon Corso’s house Jon still lived in the sprawling two-story, gray-shingled ht when Jon was sixteen Walker hadn’t h, but he’d heard plenty about the Ahters Jon had confessed to screwing all three before each went off to college The sisters werein the East with an assortment of kids Two years before, when Lionel died of a heart attack, Mona packed up and irls and all the grandkids She’d inherited the house and the bulk of Lionel’s estate Jon’s inheritance was ten thousand dollars and a life interest in the studio aparte Since the business with Mary Claire, Jon insisted that Walker keep his distance, so they’d never discussed the issue Nonetheless, Walker knew to a certainty that Jon was still chafing at the paltry su sums from the sales of his books, so it wasn’t about the money It was the insult of it all, his father’s final slap in the face; game, set, andat the house The arrange to bet she was still sticking it to him any way she could Eventually she’d put the place on the , it was a nice vacation spot when she or the girls felt like a jaunt to the West Coast

The drive continued in silence Occasionally Brent flicked a look in the rearview ainst the seat He are of Brent’s scrutiny but he made no remark It wasn’t up to him to explain his co was fine Everything was good, and then, in one swift stroke, he realized he was going under An unseen force, subtle and relentless, had taken hied toward open water with no way back