There was nothing. Did you look for oil drips? Cole said it just like that, without accusation, and Chen felt himself darken. What do you mean? The Lake Hollywood report mentions oil drips that you fo...
A cop shouted our location to the people on the road. Krantz wasn’t holding a gun, but his eyes were on Pike as if he were a down-range target. I expected him to start with our rights, or tell us we w...
Walsh wet her lips again, and her jaw flexed. As if there was too much information to process, and the swell was lifting her too high and too fast to catch her breath. She finally nodded. Okay. I’m li...
Two attendants were on duty in the parking lot. Scott parked across their entrance, and got out. The older attendant was a Latin man in his fifties with short black hair and a red vest. He hurried ove...
They led me across the commissary and along a short hall into the next building. The skinhead was named Royce, and Royce liked to bitch. He and most of the other guards had arrived yesterday, and didn...
There is great audacity in the willingness to change, more than a little optimism, and a serious dose of courage. It
The neighbor’s dog burst into frenzied barking. Devon jumped so hard, she clutched the door. Toby was a big dog with a loud bark. He sounded right outside the window, crazy loud snarling barks like he...
The front door was a standard wood entry, stained dark to match the house. A Master deadbolt was set in the frame above the knob lock. Cole pulled on a pair of vinyl gloves, selected a pick and a tens...
The cold grew until Cole felt numb. He stared at Steve Brown’s house, and wondered who these people were and if everything the woman told Pike was lies. Cole
The attendant smiled a goodbye at the door. You look much better. I’ve achieved a measure of peace with my uncertainty.
The Burbank Studios in beautiful downtown Burbank.
THE CHOKE HOLD cut off blood to a man’s brain, putting him to sleep like a laptop when its battery is low. It was an effective way to subdue a person, though sometimes that person did not wake up. Pik...
Streetlamps and security lights blazed hot in the confined lane, giving the mist a purple-blue glow. Pike stopped outside Dru’s house. A few windows glowed dull ocher in the surrounding houses, but mo...
Stephanie was still holding his hand, and Scott was wondering what she meant by it when an enormous Bentley sedan appeared at the end of the street, as out of place in this neighborhood as a flying ca...
Sometimes. Sometimes you can change what’s there, sometimes what’s there changes you.
She told herself it was the dry night wind and lashing hair, the way her eyes filled when her lonely race finished, but it was always the same whether the air was dry or not, whether her hair was down...
She stepped away and considered the couch. First we have to get this house in order. Would you please move the couch again? I stared at the couch. I had moved it maybe eight hundred times in the last...
She fingered the card and looked at the younger man. James Edward, did you offer the man a cool drink? James Edward said, You want a Scrapple?
She fell silent for a time, then slowly looked at me. She was just so lonely, you know? It was painful. I told her to try one of those online matchmaking services. I pushed. Women like Amy can be— She...
She cleared her throat. My ex-husband, Richard. Ben’s father. She cleared her throat again. He came to see you? Yesterday. And you didn’t call me. It wasn’t a question. More a statement, more just wan...