As the firing stopped, Pike saw an oversized white SUV on the far side of the parking lot, only this SUV wasn’t an ordinary police vehicle. The blue lettering and insignia on the side were difficult t...
Are you pleased to hear her living? Is this what you wanted? Pike hesitated. Keeping his voice level was more difficult this time. He nodded to let Cole and Barkley know she was alive.
A young Latin guy with thick shoulders and dull eyes came out when I stopped, as if he had been waiting. You the magazine guy? The magazine guy. That’s right. Elvis Cole. I have a ten o’clock with Ms....
A fine layer of ash had blown into the carport, showing a single set of cat prints going from the side of the house to the cat hatch built into my door. People in Minnesota see things like this with s...
As much as I’d like to lick chocolate syrup off your body, I want you to shut up.
We saw the new gymnasium and the new science labs and the newly expanded library and the new theater arts building and a lot of coeds with moussed hair and bright plastic hair clips and skin cancer ta...
The new guy smiled and put out a hand the size of a king crab. Brad Carter. You’re Mr. Cole? Yes, sir. Elvis Cole. He clutched my hand like a king crab, too. Thanks
The line went dead as I checked the mirror. The blue Dodge was back, but didn’t stay long. It appeared twice more, never closer than three or four cars, and I never picked out the cars that replaced i...
The lifter didn’t seem to be paying a lot of attention, but the buzz cut was looking at everything. He scanned the storefronts and alleys and rooflines, his ice blue eyes moving in an unhurried, pract...
The church smelled of sage and urine. Beer cans and magazines dotted the concrete floor, filthy from the sand blown through the broken walls, and faded by time. Pike guessed the urine smell was left b...
The cheery woman was coming toward me from the adjoining yard as if she had been standing at the corner of the house there, waiting. She was maybe five-eight, and dark the way you’re dark when you spe...
The best dog training was based on the reward system. You did not punish a dog for doing wrong, you rewarded the dog for doing right.
The Police Administration Building was a beautiful glass-and-concrete building with a triangular atrium that looked like the prow of a crystal ship. The cops who worked there called it the Boat. The o...
Thanks, Lyle. It’s good to be here. Mr. Sincerity.
Terry Ito had said Eddie Tang was on his way up. Maybe Eddie figured taking advantage of Mimi Warren and stealing the Hagakure were the keys to ascendancy.
Scott clipped the lead to Maggie’s collar, and paused beside the car to let her look around. He thought she might have to pee, so he took her on a short walk. Scott let her set the pace, and sniff tre...
Pike said, What’s wrong? His name isn’t Haines. It’s Hewitt, and he isn’t just your ordinary junkie. He’s on the run from the Russian mob, he used to be in the federal witness protection program, and...
I looked like an ad for Banana Republic. Maybe Banana Republic would give me a job. They could put my picture in their little catalog and under it they could say: Elvis Cole, famous detective, outfitt...
I left my car on the street, walked up across the dead yard, and a guy I took to be James Lester opened the door. He was average-sized in dark gray cotton work pants, dirty white socks, and a dingy un...
I have to make a couple of calls, then I want you to help me with something. She sat up, interested. What? Phone numbers. We have to build a phone tree tracing the calls to and from the phones Pike fo...