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993c2c3
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Pike approached the man from behind. He shifted left or right just enough to stay in the man's blind spot, moving so quickly that he was outside the office one moment and across the lot in the next, watching the key go in the lock, seeing the door open-- Pike hooked his left arm under the man's chin, and lifted. He closed his arm on the man's throat and squeezed as hard as he could, shoving the man into the room as he brought out the Kimber..
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Robert Crais |
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dee8944
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There is great audacity in the willingness to change, more than a little optimism, and a serious dose of courage. It
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Robert Crais |
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c3b5daf
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Pike held out Karen's photograph. "Have you seen this woman?" "No. I am sorry." Every word like that. Without contractions."
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Robert Crais |
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a7f934a
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Hess said, "What the fuck?" I said, "Temperamental." SACs aren't used to being cut off. I touched her arm. "We"
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Robert Crais |
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2ee2ebe
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The hunt was picking up speed, and now Pike wanted to push harder. The harder he pushed, the faster Meesh would have to react, and the more demands he would make on his men. His men would grow resentful and Meesh would get angry, and Pike would push faster and harder. This was called stressing the enemy, and when Meesh felt enough stress, he would realize he was no longer the hunter. He would accept that he was the prey. This was called bre..
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Robert Crais |
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4a34eb3
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Air dogs excelled at tracking scent in the air. Ground dogs like bloodhounds and beagles worked best tracking scent particles close to or on the ground. Scott
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Robert Crais |
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a45a725
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Long strokes. Start at her neck and run your hand back to her tail. They like the long strokes. That's the way her mama did it." James stroked her, long and slow, but he glared at Leland instead of relating to the dog. This set Leland off into one of his tirades. "Talk to her, goddamnit. She ain't a stick of furniture. She is one of God's creatures, and she will hear you. I see these goddamned people walkin' dogs, yakking on their phones, m..
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Robert Crais |
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926402c
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So ether or starter fluid wouldn't confuse her?" Budress smiled at Maggie, and offered his hand. She sniffed, then lay down at Scott's feet. "Not this nose. If I asked you to point out the orange tents, would the green hedges or blue sky or the tree bark confuse you?" "'Course not." "She smells like we see. Just laying here, she's picking up thousands of scents, just like we're seeing a thousand shades of green and blue and whatever. I say,..
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Robert Crais |
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c8070ac
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The man's breathing grew shallow and steady, his heartbeat slowed, and when the surge of his pulse grew no slower, Maggie knew he was sleeping. She lifted her head enough to see him, but seeing him was unnecessary. She could smell his sleep by the change in his scent as his body relaxed and cooled. She
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Robert Crais |
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4ca7775
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Maggie's long German shepherd nose had more than two hundred twenty-five million scent receptors. This was as many as a beagle, forty-five times more than the man, and was bettered only by a few of her hound cousins. A full eighth of her brain was devoted to her nose, giving her a sense of smell ten thousand times better than the sleeping man's, and more sensitive than any scientific device. If taught the smell of a particular man's urine, ..
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Robert Crais |
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57c2873
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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 wanting to make sure she had the facts of her life straight. "You didn't think that was worth calling me about." I sighed. "Mistake, huh?" Silence again. Pike and Teri were watching me until Pike shook his head and turned away. Sometimes y..
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Robert Crais |
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817f31b
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I asked people about you, and those people said if you were looking for a guy, then you probably found him. I just can't figure why you won't come clean." "Maybe they're wrong." He nodded. "Could be." "But maybe I just don't like being muscled, so I'm being petulant."
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Robert Crais |
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d80bb5a
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Though I did manage to gain a bit of intelligence when I was in Stu's office." "Ah." I knew that she had. You could see that in her eyes, too. A kind of ferocious twinkle."
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Robert Crais |
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1b3100f
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These dogs are not machines, goddamnit. They are alive! They are living, feeling, warm-blooded creatures of God, and they will love you with all their hearts! They will love you when your wives and husbands sneak behind your backs. They will love you when your ungrateful misbegotten children piss on your graves! They will see and witness your greatest shame, and will not judge you! These dogs will be the truest and best partners you can eve..
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Robert Crais |
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47de6bd
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In fact, it wasn't evidence at all, but I didn't want to be a defeatist.
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Robert Crais |
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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 |