Michaels was an overweight guy in his early thirties with a wide butt and a hairline that hadn’t seen his eyebrows in years. He had pale skin and washed-away eyes and dry lips that he continuously lic...
Markov nodded and the steel fingers tightened into my shoulders like pliers. Alexei backhanded me with the Glock and a starburst of pain erupted from my other ear. Some days suck. Some days you should...
Lucy was beaming. We just turned on the news and there you were. You and Jonathan Green. Was it exciting? Being with Jonathan? No, silly! They said you made some kind of break-through that might turn...
Long strokes. Start at her neck and run your hand back to her tail. They like the long strokes. That’s the way her mama did it. James stroked her, long and slow, but he glared at Leland instead of rel...
Jon Stone was more Joe’s friend than mine, though ‘friend’ probably wasn’t the right word. Jon was a private military contractor, which meant he was a mercenary. He was also a Princeton graduate and a...
Jon Stone studied his friend. Pike’s face was an empty mask, unknown and unknowable. The reflection of the city in his dark glasses was the only sign of life. Pike said, Suicide bomb in Nigeria. No su...
I’m a big brown mouse, I go marching through the house, and I’m not afraid of anything! I
It was eighteen minutes after seven, and I was getting ready to take a shower when the phone rang. Adrienne. I said, Hi, Adrienne. Elvis Cole, Too Hip Detective, pretends he can read minds.
Is it his job to lie? No, but you’re assuming it’s a lie. Reasonable people can disagree and have opposing interpretations of the facts. It’s Jonathan’s job to present an interpretation that’s favorab...
I went back to the car. Pike said, Just family, right? Or clever impersonators.
I was halfway up a wide curving staircase when Mimi Warren and her friend Kerri came around the corner and started down. Mimi’s nose was red and her hair looked like she hadn’t brushed it. When she sa...
I thought it might stand out because of the nature of the arrest. A vice sting? A Serbian sex ring. They worked for a Serb gang set. Ah. Okay, that sounds familiar. NoHo Vice took down thirteen or fou...
I put everything back into the envelope, then called my friend Eddie Ditko at the Examiner. Eddie has been a reporter for about ten million years, and he answered with a voice that was maybe three wee...
I parked in the basement, then took an elevator to the lobby where I went through a metal detector and gave my name to a guy who looked like he ate a Pontiac for breakfast. Then I took another elevato...
I left my car in the garage, then followed the guard’s directions past a Spanish tile fountain in the lobby to the elevators, and then to the top floor. Another blazered gentleman smiled at me in the...
I know why you didn’t get the money. I was wondering how much sixteen million dollars weighs. I can tell you exactly. Bank gets hit, they tell us how many of each denomination was lost. Tally that up,...
I glanced at the address. He lives in Palm Springs? Somewhere in L.A., I think. His family has the house in Palm Springs, or it might belong to a friend, but I don’t really know. Krista hasn’t told me...
I asked people about you, and those people said if you were looking for a guy, then you probably found him. I just can’t figure why you won’t come clean. Maybe they’re wrong. He nodded. Could be. But...
Hess rolled in like she was in charge, and laid out her plan to approach Ms. Breslyn. The ‘first contact’ team would consist of two women and an older, but nonthreatening, man. The team would include...
He took memory sticks and an external drive from his desk, and cables from the mess on the floor. Pike loaded his gear into the backpack, and we made our way toward the garage. Pike stopped when we re...