Sit down, Nancy. Did I do something wrong? Her eyes were dark as black forest chocolate, but wide as demitasse saucers. She probably thought he was going to chew her out, which he did, often, but now...
She touched the dash again, watching her fingers move along the gentle lines. You always follow the money. She shook her head and made a little smile. I’ve been doing this for twelve years. I’ve prose...
She spoke in a fast rush. Can’t talk. Meet me in forty minutes. Say where. Forty minutes. Not half an hour or an hour. Forty. Like we were Ukrainian spies. We
She said, What did Joe want? The daughter of a friend of his is missing. He wants me to help check it out. Lucy looked up at me, her face now serious. A child? He didn’t say. You mind if I go? She gla...
She said, This isn’t so bad. Thanks. I think. The money vibe came off her like heat—the Rock & Republic jeans, the Kitson top, the Oliver Peoples shades. Cole was good at reading people, and had learn...
She looked at me with clear eyes that were free of doubt or equivocation. Of course. I knew that we would.
Scott told himself to be patient, but wondered what Cole knew. Cole’s offer to help was like a worrisome terrier that wouldn’t let go of his ankle. Cole might be one of those people who colored outsid...
Pike stood six-one and weighed one ninety-five, all ropy muscles and crimson arrows inked on his delts. He wore a sleeveless gray sweatshirt, sun-faded jeans, and running shoes. Dark glasses masked hi...
Pike slipped behind the wheel of his Jeep, lowered the sun visor, then started the engine. None of the three men looked toward the enormous Do-It-Yourself parking lot across the street. They would hav...
Pike rolled down his window and motioned them over. Pike spoke Spanish pretty well, along with French, gutter German, a little Vietnamese, a little Arabic, and enough Swahili to make himself understoo...
Pike made the Corolla for an early ’90s model. It was dark brown in color with mismatched wheels and rusty acne on the trunk. Pike copied the plate number. He stayed between three and four cars behind...
Pike hung up. He knew he couldn’t convince Darko with more talk. Darko would have to convince himself, and now he would either show or he wouldn’t.
Pike hung up, and I stood in the center of the kitchen and listened to the silence. Someone had been in my home, and it made me feel creepy and violated and angry. I pulled out the Dan Wesson, sat it...
Pike didn’t know what he would find or if he would find anything, but the Malibu’s back seat was filled with their duffels and sleeping bags. Pike checked to make sure no one was watching, then used a...
Pete was relaxed around them, so Maggie tolerated them, but only when Pete was near.
Panel vans were working vans. There were no windows behind the front seats, and the rear bay was a dirty metal box smelling of pesticide and grease. Angelo Buono and Kenneth Bianchi had used an identi...
Nothing smelled worse than the death of another human being. Not horses or cattle or rotten whales washed onto a beach. Human death was the smell of what hid in the future, waiting for you.
Nobu Ishida had lived in an older split-level house on a Leave-It-to-Beaver street in Cheviot Hills, a couple of miles south of the Twentieth Century-Fox lot. It was dark, just after nine when we roll...
My phone buzzed in my pocket, but I did not move. He did a slow three-sixty until his eyes settled on the taco stand. A middle-aged Latina was ordering food. The red-haired cop was forty yards away, b...
Most dogs could hear four times better than a person, but Maggie’s enormous, upright ears evolved to detect quiet predators and distant prey. She could control each ear independently of the other. Eig...