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b2bf52e
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Most of the homes were immaculate Spanish or Mediterranean villas, reminiscent of an earlier time and rich with genteel elegance. More Ross Macdonald than Raymond Chandler.
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Robert Crais |
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98c9600
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An older woman wearing breeches and riding boots pushed a stroller out of a driveway and into the street. I stopped to let her cross. She smiled, thanking me. I smiled, saying take your time. A tiny hand reached from the stroller and waved at the sky.
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Robert Crais |
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3376c9c
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A black Chevy coupe with acne corrosion passed in the opposite direction, and two aging black pickups.
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Robert Crais |
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a9b2ce6
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I don't get the new shoe business." "You walk around, step on stuff, the heel gets nicked, the sole picks up dings and cuts. A pattern develops, right? It's called a Schallamach pattern. And since no two people walk exactly alike, the Schallamach on your shoe is unique to you."
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Robert Crais |
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95ec178
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I'll be there in five." Eight minutes later I parked in the parking garage, climbed the four flights to my floor, and walked down the hall. The building has an elevator, but tough guys climbed stairs. Picture me bristling with manliness. Also, impatience. Cindy's door was closed. The door to the little insurance agency across from my office was closed. My door was open."
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Robert Crais |
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d60ac90
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Tyson glanced at Amber, and eased his phone from his pocket. He was frowning at my reply when Amber stepped away from the woman and her dog. Tyson saw her turn, and jammed the phone back into his pocket. Even from the sidewalk, his mad scramble to hide the phone told me Tyson was keeping secrets. Double hm.
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Robert Crais |
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1d29d7f
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I had seen Tyson in person only once, and then from a block away. He was a nice-looking kid, but held himself close, as if wary. Amber was the opposite. She was lean, pretty, and her smile was bright with confident energy. A blousy, off-the-shoulder cream top exposed flawless skin, and long, slender legs were revealed by little white shorts that were loose, but not nasty. The Gucci sunglasses looked great on her.
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Robert Crais |
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a6d0081
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Amber swirled up from behind him, and rolled over him like a wave. "We don't have our drinks? What's taking so long?" She leaned forward across the counter, and spoke so quickly her words mashed together. "Agrandeskinnycaramelmacchiatowithextrafoam and aventivanillafrappuccinowithextravanilla. You didn't give them to someone else, did you? We need caf-feine!" Her personality swept over and around him, and defined their dynamic. He stood tal..
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Robert Crais |
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3ac3589
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Amber said, "I love your earrings." The waitress rolled her eyes. "Boyfriend medicine." "Girl, don't I know!" They laughed together like besties forever. Tyson had seen Amber's magic too many times to count, but it still left him awed. People fell in love with her." --
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Robert Crais |
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e7486d9
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The Godfather doesn't call the police. He sends Luca Brasi.
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Robert Crais |
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edd21cc
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Men like Neff and Hensman lived between raindrops and worked under eaves.
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Robert Crais |
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cd6fd99
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I looked at the picture, and Tyson looked back. Dave was speaking, but his voice was lost. I thought about Devon. She would have questions I couldn't answer. She would need help I wasn't sure I could give.
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Robert Crais |
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4d57ddf
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Manchuria
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Robert Crais |
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b46ee6a
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The bodyguard and the driver took the old man's arms and the four of them crept up the walk, moving at an old man's pace. The front door opened almost at once, revealing a burly man in his middle forties. He was short but wide, with a weight lifter's chest and thin legs. His face was round, and pocked so badly he looked like a pineapple; his arms were covered with gang tats and scars. He studied Pike, then looked at the old man and held his..
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Robert Crais |
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2f1397c
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THE GIRL was moody getting out of the car, making a sour face to let him know she hated the shabby house and sun-scorched street smelling of chili and episote. To him, this anonymous house would serve. He searched the surrounding houses for threats as he waited for her, clearing the area the way another man might clear his throat. He felt obvious wearing the long-sleeved shirt. The Los Angeles sun was too hot for the sleeves, but he had lit..
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Robert Crais |
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434af49
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He turned his back to the house to speak with the girl. "The attitude makes you memorable. Lose it. You want to be invisible."
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Robert Crais |
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fb334d9
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He said, "Say location." No hello. No howzitgoin. All Pike all the time."
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Robert Crais |
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ef122cc
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I said, "Think they were cops?" "They match the descriptions you had. Both big, one bigger. Everything else is optics." Pike."
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Robert Crais |
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caca3ca
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We asked the people at the flower shop if they had seen anything, but they hadn't. We asked every shopkeeper in the strip mall and most of the employees, but they all said no. I hoped they had seen something to indicate that Karen was safe, but deep down, where your blood runs cold, I knew they hadn't.
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Robert Crais |
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a827f60
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Cole was still working on the car when a dark green Lexus stopped across his drive. Cole straightened, and was surprised to see Pike and a young woman with ragged hair and big sunglasses get out. The girl looked wary, and Pike was wearing a long-sleeved shirt with the sleeves down. Pike never wore long-sleeved shirts. Cole limped out to meet them. "Joseph. You should have told me we had guests. I would have cleaned up." Cole smiled at the g..
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Robert Crais |
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0bc9c76
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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 learned--over time--that he was almost always right. The trouble vibe came off her, too. She looked familiar, but Cole couldn't place her."
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Robert Crais |
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a7d8eb7
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Harvey didn't set his phone to beep or buzz or vibrate like a normal person. Harvey's phone screeched with a string piece from the Hitchcock movie Psycho, the scene with Janet Leigh in the shower, the knife rising and falling, the string section shrieking with short, staccato stabs, the lone violin slashing through the fermata with discordant glissandos, more violins joining the first, violas adding their teeth, mad strings schooling like o..
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Robert Crais |
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75c3297
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Cole sensed Pike didn't want to talk in front of the girl, so he gave her the smile again. "Why don't you use the shower while I make something to eat?" Larkin glanced back at him, and Cole read a new vibe. She gave him the same crooked smile she had made in the drive, only now she was telling him he could say and do nothing that would surprise her, affect her, or impress her, here in his little house that wasn't so bad. Like a challenge, C..
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Robert Crais |
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2ad98ac
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Pike's mouth twitched, and Cole wondered if Larkin had noticed that Pike never laughed or smiled. As if the part of a man who could feel that free was dead in Pike, or buried so deep that only a twitch could escape.
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Robert Crais |
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3ecb4bf
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Nora wanted a house, so I bought a damn house, not her, me, and the next thing I know I'm in this toxic maelstrom, the three of them, every day, all the bullshit. I felt bad for those kids. Living with those three was hell, but I felt bad." He paused, and the scowl deepened. "I tried to fix it. That's a mistake we make, us guys, thinking we can fix this dysfunctional bullshit. Amber was a mess. Sad, but a mess. Jasmine, she was older. Maybe..
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Robert Crais |
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02a750a
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Jimmy smiled, wide and mindless, the way a pit bull smiles before he bites you. He said, "How about that, Terry. You think we got something as pussy as the mafia down here?"
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Robert Crais |
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0dc2e41
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It was quiet, this late, there in the peaceful neighborhood. The porches were empty. The old people and the families were sleeping. Cars were parked and streets were empty except for Pike and the five cousins, there in the cone of blue light.
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Robert Crais |
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f08200d
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When Pike turned back, Cole pointed at the corner of the roof. A pale blue alarm panel was mounted near the end of the building, but the cover was missing. Old wires had been cut, and new wires had been clipped to bypass the old. Whoever jumped the alarms hadn't bothered to replace the cover, as if they didn't care whether or not their work was discovered.
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Robert Crais |
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aa37df7
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Home is where your mistakes can be seen in context.
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Robert Crais |
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1edcf48
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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.
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Robert Crais |
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9f9f379
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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 rolled past his home, rounded the block, and parked at the curb fifty yards up the street. Somewhere nearby, a dog barked.
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Robert Crais |
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68b0e50
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I went back to the car. Pike said, "Just family, right?" "Or clever impersonators."
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Robert Crais |
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6886034
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Wozniak wet his lips. "You've got Paulette and Evelyn to think about." Wozniak's wife and daughter. The cloudy eyes flicked to Pike, as bottomless and as dangerous as a thunderhead. "I've been thinking about them, Pike. You bet your ass."
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Robert Crais |
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163f53f
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That Sunday, the sun floated bright and hot over the Los Angeles basin, pushing people to the beaches and the parks and into backyard pools to escape the heat. The air buzzed with the nervous palsy it gets when the wind freight-trains in from the deserts, dry as bone, and cooking the hillsides into tar-filled kindling that can snap into flames hot enough to melt an auto body.
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Robert Crais |
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d1455c7
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With her sunglasses off, her eyes were red, and Cole wondered if she had been crying. She caught him looking, and flashed the crooked smile. It was smart and inviting, and could never be made by someone who had just been crying, but there it was. Cole thought, This kid has had plenty of practice hiding herself.
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Robert Crais |
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e12b58e
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Jon sat in the Range Rover cocoon, listened to Amy sleep, and knew people were beyond the edge of the darkness. Talking and planning, positioning cars at egress points to cover the house, and setting up at the storage facility. No one knew how Amy would react, or which way this would go, so they had to be flexible. Jon resented their intrusion. The
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Robert Crais |
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2a7de9a
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Larkin lay in the darkness, waking, then awake as she realized she had to pee. The house was dark, so she figured he was sleeping or just standing somewhere in that creepy way, so she went directly into the bathroom. She closed the door before she turned on the light. His clothes were hanging from the shower rod, but she didn't think anything of it. She peed, then drank water from the tap, using her hand as a cup. When she finished, she tur..
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Robert Crais |
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e481946
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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 two days. "Which wall?" She chewed at her thumb, thinking. "Over there." "That's where it was two moves ago." It was a big couch. It probably weighed three thousand pounds. "Yes, but that was when the entertainment center was by the fireplace..
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Robert Crais |
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ce5571f
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Pike put down the phone, pushed the magazine into the gun, then jacked the slide and set the safety. If Pike could ever know bliss, it filled him now, but he showed nothing. He had them. He had a line that might bring him to Meesh, and then he would clear the field. All these bastards trying to kill this girl, this one girl, all of them ganged against her, and he would clear the field, but not for justice. It would be punishment. Punishment..
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Robert Crais |
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74ff714
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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 glanced at the couch again. "You'll do anything to avoid this couch, won't you?" "Yeah. I hate that damned couch." Lucy laughed, then looked into my eyes again. "I'd mind if you didn't go. Take a shower and go save the world."
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Robert Crais |
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569dd8b
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Here's the scene: The three of us are by the Olympic-sized pool. The Latina with the thick waist is hovering in the shade of the veranda up by the house, her eyes on Frank in case he might want something, but so far he doesn't and he hasn't offered anything to me. If he did, I would ask for sunblock because standing here next to his pool is like standing on the sun side of Mercury. Gotta be ninety-six and climbing. Behind us is a pool house..
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Robert Crais |
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09960e9
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The woman with the thick waist showed us out through the cool of Frank Garcia's home. Joe's red Jeep Cherokee was parked beneath an elm tree at the curb. My car was parked behind it. Pike and I walked down the drive without speaking until we came to the street, and then Joe said, "Thanks for coming." "I guess there are worse ways to spend a Sunday. I could be wrestling that damned couch." Pike canted the glasses my way. "We finish this, I'l..
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Robert Crais |
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9c533fa
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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, only tightening up when the Corolla beat him through an intersection and traffic began to slow.
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Robert Crais |
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554ea18
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I said, "Pretty." "Yes. She is." "You had to be seeing her, when, before you knew me?" His eyes never left the picture. "I knew you, but I was still on the job." I remember Joe dating back then, but the relationships seemed as they were now, none more important than any other. "I guess you were tight with this girl." Joe nodded. "So what happened?" Pike handed back the picture. "I broke her heart." "Oh." Sometimes prying is a lousy idea."
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Robert Crais |