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6c68895
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Does the Great Colinski have a first name?" "Royal. Such a name, don't you think? Royal Colinski from East L.A." The burner vibrated in my pocket, but I was learning too much to stop. "Why"
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Robert Crais |
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06222c9
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Why did Colinski want the house?" "Who knows? A place to hide, cut dope, stash cash, party. Stupid, I said, how are you going to clean up, being involved with a man like this, but the Great Colinski had spoken." "Jacobi and Juan were both addicts. Did Juan trade drugs for the house?" "Yes! This was Colinski's brilliant idea." "Do"
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Robert Crais |
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e13530a
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the police could follow him without dogs or helicopters. As we banged down the stairs, I said, "There's a trail works south through the mountains to a subdivision above"
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Robert Crais |
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85364dc
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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 were under arrest, or maybe even gloat, but he didn't.
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Robert Crais |
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7e5e4d4
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In L.A., next to riots and earthquakes, fires are our largest spectator sport.
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Robert Crais |
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118de9c
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Jon started up the steps, and then he was gone. Amy wouldn't see him at first. She'd be lost in her thoughts, checking off the rational steps that led to her rational death, and each of those steps would make perfect, inevitable sense. Until she saw Jon. Everything would change when she saw him. Jon would offer a different path.
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Robert Crais |
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d2d29af
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Scott felt uncomfortable, but managed a nod. Most of what Hess told the chief was lies. "Thank you." "I'll"
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Robert Crais |
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ed0cbc6
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Maggie swung her head from side to side, checking the high scents first, then dipped her head to taste the smells close to the ground. The humans behind her might be able to identify five or six distinct smells if they concentrated, but Maggie's long shepherd's nose gave her an olfactory picture of the world no human could comprehend: She smelled the dust beneath her feet and the goats that had been herded along the road a few hours earlier..
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Robert Crais |
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715188b
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Scott slapped on their flashers, and pushed out of their car. The flashers painted the street and surrounding buildings with blue kaleidoscope pulses. Stephanie
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Robert Crais |
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e662cb1
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Scott James felt the third impact as the bullet punched through his vest on the lower right side of his chest. The pain was intense, and quickly grew worse as his abdominal cavity filled with pooling blood. Scott
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Robert Crais |
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930820b
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Moths swarmed around the parking lot lamps, banging into the glass with a steady tap-tap-tap, and I wondered if they welcomed the dawn. At dawn, they could stop slamming their heads into the thing that forever kept them from the light. People don't have a dawn. We just keep slamming away until it kills us.
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Robert Crais |
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c9dd522
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Bud Orso was in his early forties, with a chubby scoutmaster's face topped by a crown of short black hair. He was waiting when Scott stepped off the elevator, which Scott had not expected. "Bud"
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Robert Crais |
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bae3065
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I fingered through Amy Breslyn's file and skimmed her corporate bio by the hazy glow of the street light. Her corporate portrait showed a round woman with light brown hair, pale skin, a soft face, and the sad eyes of someone who lost her only child for reasons no sane person could understand. If she wore makeup, I could not see it. She was as anonymous as a blur in a crowd except for the fact this particular blur possessed a Ph.D. in chemic..
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Robert Crais |
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8624e5b
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second voice spoke, young and uncertain. "This is Ilan. Can you hear me?" Their voices had the hollow, faraway quality that came with being on speaker. "I"
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Robert Crais |
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5119bfd
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Scott turned away with Maggie at his side. He felt like an idiot for believing he had discovered a glaring discrepancy when top-cop detectives like Orso and Cowly knew the case inside and out. Scott wasn't an idiot, but three more days would pass before he understood.
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Robert Crais |
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d8ed067
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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 over when he saw Scott block their drive, but pulled up short when he saw Scott's uniform. This was the cop effect. He said, "You wan' to park?" Scott let Maggie out. The man saw her, and took a step back. This was the German shepherd effect. Scot..
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Robert Crais |
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66806fa
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Scott woke the next morning, feeling anxious and agitated. He had dreamed about Marshall and Daryl. In the dream, they stood calmly in the street as the shooting unfolded around them. In the dream, Marshall told Orso and Cowly the five men removed their masks after the shooting, and called each other by name. In the dream, Marshall knew their names and addresses, and had close-up photos of each man on his cell phone. Scott just wanted to kn..
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Robert Crais |
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21f2efd
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I did not tell the police my true reason for being there. I did not mention Amy Breslyn. Not yet, not then, but everything might have been different if I had. Meryl Lawrence had told me little about Amy Breslyn, but now those facts seemed to have a new and dangerous meaning. I promised Meryl Lawrence to keep Amy's secrets mine, so I kept them. And many, I still keep. We passed the black Suburban with its silent, flashing lights. The people ..
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Robert Crais |
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aefb972
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The thirty-million-candlepower Nightsun was impressive, but Scott knew the helicopter's high-magnification cameras and FLIR heat imager gave the Air Support crew a much better view than their searchlight. Police officers, dogs, car engines, and anything producing a heat signature would glow on their monitor. Their eye-in-the-sky imager was the next best thing to X-ray vision, but it wasn't infallible. "When"
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Robert Crais |
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1f381d7
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How many warnings do you need before we charge you with felony stupid?" Evanski"
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Robert Crais |
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5dba031
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nostrils flickered and twitched. Her breathing pattern changed when she sniffed for a scent. Sniffing wasn't breathing. The air she drew for sniffing did not enter her lungs. Sniffs were small sips she took in groups called trains. A train could be from three to seven sniffs, and Maggie always sniffed in threes. Sniff-sniff-sniff, pause, sniff-sniff-sniff. Budress' dog, Obi, sniffed in trains of five. Always five. No one knew why, but each ..
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Robert Crais |
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fde6136
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Do you know what she's selling?" "She offered al-Qaeda her expertise, and a quantity of material. I don't know how much." "Two hundred kilograms of a plastic explosive. These particular explosives are not marked by taggants." She rolled her eyes, and maybe looked worried. "Do you know where it is?" "I'll find out tomorrow, and take it." "You're"
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Robert Crais |
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e724756
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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 herself, another woman, and the man, the other woman being a shrink in her forties, and the man being a U.S. Attorney with a gentle, assuring presence. First contact, like Ms. Breslyn was an alien. Hess was explaining how their 'first contact' ..
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Robert Crais |
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9c74860
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Jack called to his friend. "Manana, dude. We're gonna hang." "We"
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Robert Crais |
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778bb6c
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If a future judge excluded the watchband, he or she might also exclude all downstream evidence derived from the band. The downstream evidence was called "fruits of the poisonous tree," under the principle that evidence derived from bad evidence was also bad. If investigators knew they had a piece of bad fruit, they tried to find a path around the bad fruit by using unrelated evidence to reach the same result. This was called a work-around. ..
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Robert Crais |
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5b9615c
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Scott was feeling a little better. "Whatever you say." "I say. And if the DNA matches Daryl to the band, we have something to chase, which is all thanks to you." The"
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Robert Crais |
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6c8707e
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Humor. I am my own best audience. Meryl
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Robert Crais |
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f514d55
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He bogged down in traffic three blocks from the freeway. Yet another apartment building was being framed on a lot intended for a single-family home. A lumber truck was blocking the street as it crept off the site, and a food truck maneuvered to take its place. Locked in the standstill, Scott watched the framers perched in the wood skeleton like spiders, banging away with their nail guns and hammers. A few climbed down to the food truck, but..
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Robert Crais |
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01f188b
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Scott squeaked approval, stayed her, and went to his car. Maggie sensed something was wrong by the change in his gait. She desperately wanted to follow, but Scott had stayed her. She obeyed, but whimpered anxiously when he crawled under the car. Maggie saw him tense, and the frantic way he scrambled to his feet, and heard the strain in his voice when he spoke to the woman. Then the woman shouted, and Scott ran to the street. His smell reach..
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Robert Crais |
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8578fd4
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WHEN COLE CUT HIM FREE, Jon amscrayed back to West Hollywood. He hadn't been home long enough to heat his pool, but Jon stripped as he walked through his house, and hit the water like a naked lawn dart. The
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Robert Crais |
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3df83df
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The rifle was mottled with a synthetic preservative that smelled like overripe peaches. The stock and pistol grip were made of a bright orange wood that was slick with the preservative. The Russians had gone to polymer stocks, but the Chinese still went with the wood. Pike opened the bolt to inspect the receiver and breech. They were flawless.
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Robert Crais |
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60e382f
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Pike hung up. He knew he couldn't convince Darko with more talk. Darko would have to convince himself, and now he would either show or he wouldn't.
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Robert Crais |
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2a4d6bd
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Pike closed the Jeep, and watched them. He was vaguely aware of the bodyguards, but they were as inconsequential as a passing thought. He focused on Darko. Darko had done these things, and now Pike had an obligation to Frank. The obligation existed because they carried each other's slack and trusted their teammates would pick them up if they fell. No one was left behind, which meant the obligation extended beyond logic and reason. It was an..
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Robert Crais |
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7df926f
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When Pike reached home, he stretched in the parking lot to cool, then peeled off his sweatshirt, deactivated the alarms, and let himself in. His condo was austere and functional with little in the way of decoration. Dining room set off the kitchen; couch, chair, and coffee table in the living room; a flat-screen television for sports and news. A black stone meditation fountain burbled in the corner. Pike found peace in the natural sound, as..
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Robert Crais |
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afeb655
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Behind him, McIntosh whispered. "What if it's people?" "It's not." "I know these are animal heads, but this could be human blood. These organs could be from people." "They aren't. Butchered people smell different." McIntosh studied Pike as if wondering how Pike knew that, then pointed out the wall behind the counter. "Check"
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Robert Crais |
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9305101
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Pike moved along the side of the house, looking into each window he passed, and checking for signs of tampering. The first room appeared to be a guest bedroom, and the next was the kitchen. The bedroom appeared undisturbed, but Pike's view was limited. He saw dirty dishes, three empty beer bottles, and a cutting board on the kitchen counter. Pike told himself the dishes indicated Wilson and Dru planned to return home, but the goat heads and..
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Robert Crais |
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dc4f385
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Daniel loved these damned hurricanes. He folded back the shutters, then opened the window. Rain hit him good. It tasted of salt and smelled of dead fish and weeds. The cat-five wind clawed through New Orleans at better than a hundred miles an hour, but back here in the alley--in a cheap one-room apartment over a po'boy shop--the wind was no stronger than an arrogant breeze. The
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Robert Crais |
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8d9e95e
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Daniel said, all serious, "I asked you, you seen a zombie? They got'm here in this place, I know for a fact." Tolley"
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Robert Crais |
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39e1d2d
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He snuggled closer, spooning into her back, both of them staring at nothing. Jack wondered what she was seeing. Krista
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Robert Crais |
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4054b7f
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A shopping bag from a local hobby store contained kits for making buzzers and doorbells. Jugs of liquid resin and rolls of plastic food wrap sat beside the bag, and a mini-loaf baking pan was wedged between the jugs. Plastic sewing kits were stacked next to X-Acto knives, and so many arts and crafts supplies Amy could open a hobby shop. The
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Robert Crais |
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f944378
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The two men shook hands, then the cowboy walked through the main gate to an anonymous Buick and drove away. Watching
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Robert Crais |
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9541596
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Daniel reloaded, tucked away his gun, then took out the satellite phone. The cell stations were out all over the city, but the sat phone worked great. He checked the time, hit the speed dial, then waited for a link. It always took a few seconds. In that time, he stood taller, straightened himself, and resumed his normal manner. When the connection was made, Daniel reported. "Tolliver James is dead. He didn't provide anything useful." Daniel..
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Robert Crais |
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0ad5985
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If a zombie appeared, Daniel planned to jump out the window after it and rip its putrid, unnatural flesh to pieces with his teeth. He was, after all, a werewolf, which was why he was such a good hunter and killer. Werewolves feared nothing. Daniel
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Robert Crais |
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25d9201
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Pike had at least four minutes inside if the breach registered at a top private security firm. The duty monitor would run a system diagnostic to make sure the alarm hadn't been triggered by a malfunction, then phone the subscriber. If the subscriber could not be reached, the monitor would alert a mobile unit or the police, who would respond only after finishing their current call. Four minutes was the best-case response time, but Pike knew ..
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Robert Crais |