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2a4a92c
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Pike said, "Coming your way." Pike gunned his Jeep out of the Shell station, and turned onto the highway at the first intersection. He lost sight of the van when he slowed for oncoming cars, but slalomed between traffic and quickly caught up. "Eight lengths back. I'm by a yellow eighteen-wheeler." "Looking." Pike was still settling into a groove when the van's right-turn indicator flashed. They had gone less than a mile. "Blinker." "Shit, I..
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Robert Crais |
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5cf97f9
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Being a friend is hard." "If it was easy, anyone could do it." "I love smart women." "Smart women love you." "I'd better go." "Call me later."
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Robert Crais |
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5b12e68
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A woman I know gave me a build-it-yourself bird-feeder kit for Christmas, so I built it, and hung it from the eve of my roof high enough to keep the birds save from my cat. But the birds scratch the seed out of the feeder, then fly down to the deck and eat the seed. They know there's a cat, but still they go down to pick at the seed. When you think about it, people are often like this, too.
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Robert Crais |
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cef2c26
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So. Ixnay on the direct approach.
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Robert Crais |
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c92dc38
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There were dozens of boats and skiers on the water, the powerboats and jet skis buzzing like angry mutant wasps.
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Robert Crais |
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b532930
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Pike knew how to remain calm during the chaos of combat. He had been trained for it, and had survived withering fire in overwhelming combat situations dozens of times. He had learned to keep his head by thinking about one thing at a time. Access the situation, plan a single action, then commit yourself to that action. A war is won one maneuver at a time. Pike
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Robert Crais |
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fb1a42d
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When the light changed, the arrow dude crossed with the crowd, walking along Sunset like he was normal. Daniel clocked the dude as he passed. Big guy, hard, but he moved as if he was floating. Nasty hands, though, with big, coarse knuckles and veins wrapped under his skin like vines. Daniel
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Robert Crais |
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6ab1b23
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The arrows. What they mean is, you control who you are by moving forward, never back; you move forward. That's what I do. That's what we're going to do.
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Robert Crais |
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ca68510
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Joe Pike watched his friend Elvis Cole leave the Burger King parking lot, then entered the longitude and latitude into his GPS. Pike was not using a civilian GPS. He used a military handheld known as a Defense Advanced GPS Receiver, which was also known as a dagger. The DAGR was missile-guidance precise, could not be jammed, and contained the cryptography to use the Army and Air Force GPS satellite system. The DAGR was illegal for civilians..
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Robert Crais |
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96a04d3
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Character assassination is one of the greatest pastimes of the village righteous and,
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Robert Crais |
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cec080d
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Some guys can charm the stitches off a baseball.
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Robert Crais |
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ab9ba1a
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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 tans.
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Robert Crais |
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6b58d45
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they could use in an identity search. "Six feet, one ninety,"
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Robert Crais |
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350b700
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He pursed his lips as if wrestling with how much he wanted to say, then finally told me. "Have you seen news accounts of the mass graves found south of the border?" I nodded. Mass graves containing scores of murder victims were sometimes found, and were so horrific they made national news in the U.S. He said, "These were immigrants abducted for ransom, Mr. Cole. Bajadores leave no witnesses. Let us hold a good thought until we know more." I..
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Robert Crais |
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0763232
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I jiggled the watch. An authentic Rolex had serial and model numbers cut into the head behind the bracelet, or on the inner rim below the crystal. High-end fakes often had numbers, too, but fake numbers didn't appear in the manufacturer's records.
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Robert Crais |
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760dfdd
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Green streaks of toothpaste highlighted the sink, and the counter was forested with deodorant, mouthwash, zit cream, and all the usual bathroom items. A frazzled toothbrush and disposable razor stood sentry in a plastic X-Men cup. Tyson's medications were lined up beneath the mirror. The scripts bore Tyson's name, and were written for medicines commonly used to treat depression, anxiety, and attention deficit disorder. I found nothing out o..
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Robert Crais |
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31e4875
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A girl came out of the school. She was thin, and wispy, and appeared to be fifteen or sixteen. She stopped outside the doors, lit a cigarette, and inhaled hard enough to inflate her body. I watched her smoke, and waited. Sooner or later, she would finish the cigarette or smoke herself to death.
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Robert Crais |
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5e750cb
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I put the Corvette in its spot in the parking garage and rode up in the elevator and went into my office and closed the door. There was a message on my answering machine from someone looking for Bob, but that was probably a wrong number. Or maybe it wasn't a wrong number. Maybe I was in the wrong office. Maybe I was in the wrong life.
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Robert Crais |
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234d12b
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What was it Jiminy Cricket said? Little man, you've had a busy night. I put some of the chili paste on the squid and some on the rice and mixed it and ate and drank the beer. I'm a big brown mouse, I go marching through the house, and I'm noooot afraid of anything!
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Robert Crais |
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27b5bf3
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The sun was low above Catalina, pushing bright yellow rectangles up my eastern wall when the door opened and Joe Pike walked in. I tipped what was maybe the second or third Modelo bottle at him. "Life in the fast lane," I said. Maybe it was the fourth. "Uh-huh."
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Robert Crais |
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fba0328
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Traci Louise Fishman picked at the steering wheel some more, then gave me the Special Secret look again. Like there was something else I'd never heard before, and something Traci had never been able to tell, and now she wanted to. "You want me to tell you something really weird?" I looked at her. "Last year, we were up in my room, smoking. My room is on the second floor and in the back, so I can open the window and no one knows." "Uh-huh." ..
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Robert Crais |
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6681f56
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The backseat was even worse. Taco wrappers, drive-thru cups, and greasy napkins covered the floor. I dug through most of it, but the only evidence I found was evidence of tooth decay. Tyson was an eating machine. He probably turned to crime to pay for a junk food habit.
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Robert Crais |
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eb6abac
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A left-behind look.
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Robert Crais |
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ac92bbd
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Maybe if I didn't think about Mimi Warren or Traci Louise Fishman or Eddie Tang they would all disappear and living would be easy. Elvis Cole, Existential Detective. I liked that. Not thinking, properly done, creates a pleasant numbed sensation in the brain that I like a lot. There are women who will tell you that not thinking is one of my best things.
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Robert Crais |
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16a0127
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The living room walls were crowded with trophies for excellence in the martial arts. Hundreds of them. Gleaming first-place cups and championship belts from exhibitions and tournaments all over the United States. Best All-Around. In Recognition of Excellence. Black Belt Master. Over-All Champion. "Don't worry about this stuff," I said. "The guy probably bought'm." Pike said, "Uh-huh."
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Robert Crais |
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dde499c
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distinct samples, and I'm pretty sure
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Robert Crais |
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6f85087
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It's what we call a fanciful life construction. Also known as baloney.
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Robert Crais |
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b3b01b6
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Stemms sniffed the air loudly, like a dog catching a scent. "I'm smelling bullshit." Harvey spoke again, voice mellow and calm, like a jazz man at two in the morning. "Relax, Jesse. What does she look like? Describe her."
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Robert Crais |
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ba014c9
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Tyson's mother worked as an office manager for a law firm in Encino. She appeared neat, trim, and ready for work when she opened the door, but carried herself with so much tension she might have been wrapped with duct tape.
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Robert Crais |
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a48514b
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I leaned against the fence and crossed my arms and stared at her. After a while she looked over and said, "Why are you staring at me?" "Because I am the Lord High Keeper of the Knowledge of Right and Wrong, and I am trying to figure out what to do." She blinked at me. "Jiminy Cricket," I said. "He was also Counselor in Moments of Temptation, and Guide Along the Straight and Narrow Path. You need that."
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Robert Crais |
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cf9d798
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You'll notice," Pike said, "that the only people in here who look like thugs are me and you." "You, maybe. I look like Don Johnson. You look like Fred Flintstone."
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Robert Crais |
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135d361
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For the longest time, Mimi Warren did not move, then she looked at me and said, "I don't feel anything." I said, "Kid, you've had so much done to you that the part that feels went dead a long time ago." Maybe Carol Hillegas could fix it. Mimi cocked her head the way a bird will, as if I'd said something curious, and smiled. "Is that what you think?"
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Robert Crais |
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50284d2
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Does your mother know?" Shrug. The tears dropped down her cheeks and into her mouth. She dug out another cigarette and lit it. Her fingers were wet from wiping away tears and left gray marks on the paper. She made the giggle and it was confused and crazy. She said, "Eddie and I are going to get married. He said we're going to live in a penthouse apartment on Wilshire Boulevard in Westwood and I'm going to have babies and we'll go to the bea..
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Robert Crais |
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af2614b
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Pretty soon Joe Pike came back, scrubbed and fresh and bright-eyed. It's never easy to tell if someone is bright-eyed when they're wearing sunglasses, but one makes certain assumptions.
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Robert Crais |
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a1742c0
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The girls at the Porsche leaned against its fenders and looked past each other so they could see the Rabbit and me and Traci, and there was lots of laughter. One of them stared openly. I said, "You think they share the same lip gloss tube?" Traci giggled. She looked at me sort of the same way she looked at them, out from under her eyes, as if she really didn't want you to know she was looking, as if she thought that if you knew, you'd say s..
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Robert Crais |
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38c338e
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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 saw me she took a half step back up toward the landing, then stopped. "How did you find me?" I spread my hands. "You're supposed to be kidnapped. You go to clubs on Sunset Boulevard, you gotta expect to be found." Kerri said, "Who is this?" I sai..
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Robert Crais |
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783a406
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Bobby's cheek was swollen and beginning to color but he still managed a grin. Probably because he had a Ruger .380 automatic in his left hand instead of a nightstick. He aimed it at me and said, "Here's where I put the fuck on you, asshole." That Bobby. What a way with words."
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Robert Crais |
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6c184b4
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Southeast Asians almost never use chopsticks. If you go to Vietnam or Thailand or Cambodia, you never see a chopstick. Even in the boonies. They use forks and large spoons but when they come here and open a little restaurant they put out chopsticks because that's what Americans expect. Ain't life a bitch?
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Robert Crais |
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9870af3
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The next day I watched TV and read and lay on the couch and stared at my high-vaulted ceiling. Just after noon I showered and shaved and dressed and took a drive over to the County Medical Facility and asked them if I could see Mimi. They said no. I left the front and went around back and tried to sneak in, but a seventy-five-year-old security guard with narrow shoulders and a wide butt caught me and raised hell. It goes like that sometimes..
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Robert Crais |
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e330455
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She opened her car door again, but still didn't get in. Out in the street some rich kid's Firebird with a Glaspak muffler blasted past, wrecking the calm. She said, "You go to school, you work hard, you play the game. When you're in school, they don't tell you how much it costs. They don't tell you what you've got to give up to get to where you want to be." "They never do." Jillian looked at me some more, then she said good night and got in..
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Robert Crais |
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a8bebf3
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There were dozens of limos and taxis and MBs and Jaguars. Suitcases were going in and out and doormen in red uniforms were whistling for the next taxi in line and guys I took to be tourists who looked like they made a lot of money were with tall slender women who looked like they cost a lot of money to keep up. None of them looked like gunsels or thugs or art thief-maniacs, but you can never be sure.
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Robert Crais |
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c849d72
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I hadn't heard it when I'd been in the house before, but when I was in the house before there'd been other people and things going on. Now the house seemed abandoned and desolate. Life in an Andrew Wyeth landscape.
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Robert Crais |
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ca5523d
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We went through an unmarked door and along a sterile tile corridor and through another unmarked door and then we were in the Blue Corridor and then the Blue Room.
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Robert Crais |
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1932be8
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She gave me the serious goldfish face, then went back to staring at her dress.
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Robert Crais |