in danger, so he’d have nothing to worry about except poached eggs,
which wouldn’t be much of a worry at all, since he sort of liked poached
eggs.
WHEN Clint Karaghiosis arrived at Dakota & Dakota shortly before nine
o’clock, Bobby took him by the shoulder, turned him around, and went
back to the elevator with him.
“You drive, and I’ll fill you in on what’s happened during the night. I
know you’ve got other cases to tend to, the Pollard thing is getting
hotter by the minute.”
“Where’re we going?”
“First, Palomar Labs. They called. Test results are in.”
a few clouds remained in the sky, and they were far off toward the
mountains, moving away like the billow sails of great galleons on an
eastward journey. It was a quintessential southern California day:
blue, pleasantly warm, everything green and fresh, and rush-hour traffic
so hideously snarled that it could transform an ordinary citizen into a
foaming-at-the-mouth sociopath with a yearning to pull a trigger of a
semiautomatic weapon.
Clint avoided freeways, but even surface streets were clogged. By the
time Bobby recounted everything that transpired since they had seen each
other yesterday afternoon they were still ten minutes from Palomar in
spite of the questions occasionally asked by Clint’s amazement-subdued
like a o reactions, but amazement none the less at the discovery that
Frank was evidently able to teleport himself.
Finally Bobby changed the subject because talking too Clint about
psychic phenomena to a phlegmatic guy like Clint made him feel like an
airhead, as if he had lost his grip on reality. While they inched along
Bristol Avenue, he said,
“I can remember when you could go anywhere in Orange County and never
get caught in traffic.”
“Not so long ago.”
“I remember when you didn’t have to sign a developer’s waiting list to
buy a house. Demand wasn’t five times the supply.”
“Yeah.”
“And I remember when orange groves were all over Orange County.”
“Me too.”
Bobby sighed. “Hell, listen to me, like an old geezer, babbling about
the good old days. Pretty soon, I’ll be talking about how nice it was
when there were still dinosaurs around.”
“Dreams,” Clint said. “Everyone’s got a dream, and the one more people
have than any other is the California dream, so they never stop coming,
even though so many have come now that the dream isn’t really quite
attainable any more, not the original dream that started it all. Of
course, maybe a dream should be unattainable, or at least at the outer
limits of your reach. If it’s too easy, it’s meaningless.”
Bobby was surprised by the long burst of words from Clint, but more
surprised to hear the man talking about something as intangible as
dreams.
“You’re already a Californian, so what’s your dream?” After a brief
hesitation, Clint said,
“That Felina will be able to hear someday. There’re so many medical
advancements these days, new discoveries and treatments and techniques
all the time.”
As Clint turned left off Bristol, onto the side street where Palomar
Laboratories stood, Bobby decided that was a good dream, a damned fine
dream, maybe even better than his and Julie’s dream about buying time
and getting a chance to bring Thomas out of Cielo Vista and into a
remade family.
They parked in the lot beside the huge concrete-block building in which
Palomar Laboratories was housed. As they were walking toward the front
door, Clint said, “Oh, by the way, the receptionist here thinks I’m gay,
which is fine with me.”
“What?”
Clint went inside without saying more, and Bobby followed him to the
reception window. An attractive blonde sat at the counter.
“Hi, Lisa,” Clint said.
“Hi!” She punctuated her response by cracking her chewing gum.
“Dakota and Dakota.”
“I remember,” she said.
“Your stuff’s ready. I’ll get it.” She glanced at Bobby and smiled, and
he smiled, too, although her expression seemed a little peculiar to him.
When she returned with two large, sealed manila envelopes-one labeled
SAMPLES, the other ANALYSES-she handed the second one to Bobby. They
stepped to one side of the lounge, away from the counter.
Bobby tore open the envelope and skimmed the document inside.