Chapter 41

The cell door slid open.

Hugh jerked his head to the right. The opposite bunk was empty.

“Haven’t got all day,” said the guard.

The Valley Cab taxi merged into the left lane of Topanga Canyon Boulevard, the road ahead climbing into the mountains. On the first long curve, a deer emerged from a thicket. How wonderfully delicate its legs, yet as the taxi closed, it effortlessly bounded an almost vertical slope.

The taxi cruised into the village, slowed to a crawl in front of the Peace & Love. On the deck, the poet was performing for a shirtless man on whose shoulders balanced an iguana and a macaw.

The poet’s words wafted through the taxi’s rolled-down rear windows.

A rock pool can be cold as dry ice.
A rock pool can be warm as shit . . .

Inside the house, Hanna clung to Hugh.

“Where is he?” asked Hugh.

“Who?”

“Kyle.”

“Kyle? He’s out there, isn’t he?”

“He’s gone.”

“Jesus, he’s not dead?”

“No. He’s dead all right.”

“Then—maybe it was him,” suggested Hanna.

“Who?”

“You know. Mr. Ono.”

“Kazuki was here?”

“Yesterday. I wasn’t going to answer the knock, but I peeked through the curtain. He looked harmless, you know? He explained that he’d come to drop off a book for you, would I accept it? I figured why not? Damned if thirty minutes later, he didn’t knock on the door again. He said he wanted the book back. ‘It was never finished.’ That’s what he said.”

Hanna and Hugh stood by the rock pool. Kyle’s impression was still visible in the mud, but there were no signs that the body had been dragged away.

“Kyle wanted to be a zombie,” said Hanna. “He was always saying how he’d rather be a zombie than go to heaven. Maybe he got his wish.” Hanna laughed. “Any second now we might see him crashing through the window . . . Kyle, you stupid shit.”

As Hugh turned back to the house, he noticed a swift movement at the base of the pool. Several fat crayfish scurrying for cover. The largest moved slowly, stiffly, its body an odd metallic color.

“Paranoid Android” played, and for a moment Hugh thought it came from the heavens. On the other end of the cell phone was Kazuki.