The Face Read Free

stalker’s eye—always watching, judging.
    Crap. Cheap analysis. For all his somber brooding, in weather conducive to contemplation and to dark speculation, Ethan’s every observation seemed obvious and useless.
    He ruminated on the apple-damp words: T HE EYE IN THE APPLE? T HE WATCHFUL WORM? T HE WORM OF ORIGINAL SIN? D O WORDS HAVE ANY PURPOSE OTHER THAN CONFUSION?
    Stumped, he was grateful when the phone rang at a few minutes past ten o’clock, drawing him away from the windows and to the desk.
    Laura Moonves, an old friend from the LAPD, had been tracking down a license-plate number for him. She worked out of the Detective Support Division. Only once before in the past year had he presumed upon their friendship in this way.
    “Got your pervert,” Laura said.
    “Suspected pervert,” he corrected.
    “The three-year-old Honda is registered to Rolf Herman Reynerd in West Hollywood.” She spelled each name and gave him an address.
    “What kind of parents
Rolf
a kid?”
    Laura knew all about names. “It’s not so bad. Nicely masculine, in fact. In Old German, it means ‘famous wolf.’ Ethan, of course, means ‘permanent, assured.’”
    Two years ago, they’d dated. For Laura, Ethan had been anything but permanent, assured. She’d have liked permanence, some assurance. He had been too wounded to provide what she wanted. Or too stupid.
    “Looked him up for a rap sheet,” Laura said, “but he’s clean. DMV says ‘hair brown, eyes blue.’ Says ‘sex male.’ I like sex male. I don’t get enough sex male. Height six-one, weight one-eighty. DOB—June sixth, nineteen seventy-two, which makes him thirty-one.”
    Ethan had it all on a notepad. “Thanks, Laura. I owe you one.”
    “So then tell me—how big’s his charlie?”
    “Isn’t that in the DMV file?”
    “I don’t mean Rolf’s charlie. I mean Manheim’s. Does it hang to his ankles or just to his knees?”
    “I’ve never seen his charlie, but he doesn’t seem to have any trouble walking.”
    “Cookie, maybe you can introduce us sometime.”
    Ethan had never known why she called him Cookie. “The man would bore your ass off, Laura, and that’s the truth.”
    “Pretty as he is, I wouldn’t need conversation. I’d just shove a rag in his mouth, tape his lips shut, and off we’d go to paradise.”
    “Basically it’s my job to keep people like you away from him.”
    “Truman derives from two Old English words,” she said. “It means ‘steadfast, loyal, trustworthy, constant.’”
    “You can’t get a date with the Face by making me feel guilty. Besides, when wasn’t I loyal and trustworthy?”
    “Cookie, two out of four doesn’t mean you deserve your name.”
    “You were too good for me anyway, Laura. You’ve got more to give than a shlump like me can appreciate.”
    “I’d like to see your old Ten Card,” she said, referring to his record of service on the force. “Must be more brown stars for ass kissing on that baby than any hundred other cards in the history of the job.”
    “If you’re done dissing me, I’ve been wondering…. Rolf. Famous wolf. Does that make sense? What’s a wolf have to do to get famous?”
    “Kill a lot of sheep, I guess.”

    By the time Ethan said good-bye to Laura, a thin rain had begun to fall again. Without the ardor of a wind, the droplets barely kissed the study windows.
    Using the remote control, he switched on the TV and then the VCR. The tape was already loaded. He’d watched it six times before.
    Exterior security cameras throughout the estate numbered eighty-six. Every house door and window and all the approaches across the grounds were monitored.
    Only the north wall of the estate abutted public property. This long rampart, including the gate, was under surveillance by cameras mounted in the trees on the land directly across the street, a parcel also owned by Channing Manheim.
    Anyone reconnoitering the front-wall security, the operation of the gate, and the protocols of visitor