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“Killing,” I said

“That’d be uess,” she said

“So,” Oscar said, “if he’s been forced to take a vacation for twenty years—”

“No way he’dway”

“But he hasn’t been calling attention to his kills,” Bolton said

Angie lifted a stack of flyers “Until now”

“He’s been killing kids,” I said

“For twenty years,” Angie said

Erdha a cowboy hat and driving a stolen red Jeep Cherokee had blown a red light at an intersection on Wollaston Beach Quincy Police had given chase and lost him on a steep curve of 3A in Weymouth, which he maneuvered and they didn’t

“Chasing a fucking Jeep on a curve?” Devin said in disbelief “These Mario Andrettis slide out, but a somersault machine like a Cherokee holds the curve?”

“That’s the size of it Last seen heading south over the bridge by the old naval yard”

“What time was that?” Bolton said

Erdham checked his notes “Nine thirty-five on Wollaston Nine forty-four when they lost him”

“Anything else?” Bolton said

“Yeah,” Erdha at me

“What?”

“Mallon?”

Fields stepped into the kitchen holding a stack of small tape recorders and at least fifty feet of coaxial cable

“What’s that?” Bolton said

“He bugged the entire apart to look at me “The recorders were fastened by electrical tape to the underside of the landlord’s porch No tapes inside The cables fed into a junction port up on the roof, mixed in with the cable TV and electrical and phone lines

He ran the cables down the side of the house with the rest of the wires and you’d never notice unless you were looking for it”

“You’re shitting me,” I said

Fields gave etic shake of his head “’Fraid not By the amount of dust andto everything going on inside your aparted “Maybe more”

26

“Why didn’t he take off the cowboy hat?” I said as we drove back to Angie’s

I’d left ratefully Currently it was filled with technicians and cops sta it in a cloud of fingerprint dust One bug was found in the living room baseboard, another attached to the underside of my bedroom dresser, a third sewed into the kitchen curtain

I was trying to distract myself from the deep incision made by my total lack of privacy, and that’s when I fixated on the cowboy hat

“What?” Devin said

“Why was he still wearing the cowboy hat when he blew the light in Wollaston?”

“He forgot to take it off,” Oscar said