Quotes from Robert Crais

I drove back to Belmont Pier, parked in front of a shop that sold whale-watching tickets, and used a pay phone there to call Lou Poitras. He said, "Bubba, you really take advantage." "Funny. Your wife said the same thing." Poitras sighed. "Just tell me what you want." Humor. You break them down with humor, and victory is yours.

Meryl Lawrence was in her mid-forties, with sandy hair and the trim, sturdy build of a woman who took care of herself. She wet her lips as she stared at the phone, thinking, and finally glanced up. "What

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

Nope." I hung up, bought an iced tea from a sausage grill, then stared at the bay. The water was clean and blue, and Catalina was in sharp relief twenty-six miles away. A young woman in short-shorts and a metallic blue bikini top Rollerbladed past on the bicycle path. I followed her motion but did not see her. The detective in thoughtful mode. I

She looked at our hands, twined there in her lap. "I know you want to help me through this. You already have, and I'm grateful, but you can't help me anymore." She tugged at my hand, and when I looked over I think she was trying not to cry. "I will not have my life defined by triangles. It's not fair to you, and it's not fair to me. Richard is my mistake, and I have to live with it." I didn't know what to say.

The girl came out of the kitchen with the pot. She looked confused as she held up the pot, her expression saying what in hell is this? Pike raised a finger, telling her to wait, then checked his watch. It was now thirteen minutes before eight.

Joe Pike thought about that for a long time. Centuries. Then he said, "Someone had to bring her back.

Pike immediately started the Jeep, but kept his voice calm. Panic bred panic. Calm inspired calm. These were lessons he learned in the battle space.

of the gloom and up the middle

He came around with a red plastic gas can and got into one of the boats and filled its tank. "Watch out for those rat bastard ski boats," he said. "Damn rich kids come out here and run wild all over the goddamn lake. Swamp you sure as I shit peanuts." He was a charming old guy.

Jon sat in the Range Rover cocoon, listened to Amy sleep, and knew people were beyond the edge of the darkness. Talking and planning, positioning cars at egress points to cover the house, and setting up at the storage facility. No one knew how Amy would react, or which way this would go, so they had to be flexible. Jon resented their intrusion. The

Pike knew how to remain calm during the chaos of combat. He had been trained for it, and had survived withering fire in overwhelming combat situations dozens of times. He had learned to keep his head by thinking about one thing at a time. Access the situation, plan a single action, then commit yourself to that action. A war is won one maneuver at a time. Pike

Pitch hadn't missed any meals. The car swayed when he climbed out. The old man's phone rang nine times before he answered. The old man had staff to field calls, especially in the middle of the night, but he'd given Riley special access. His voice sounded phlegmy with sleep. "Hello? Who is this?" "Riley. Sorry to wake you, sir." The old man cleared his throat. "Let's hear it.

the sort of baleful stare you get when life's a mystery.

Maybe he's just some guy. Maybe he doesn't have anything to do with why she left or why she took the money." Meryl Lawrence made a tiny self-loathing snort. "I'll ask her if you can find her." I took the envelope. She watched me put it away but didn't look any less unhappy with herself or relieved. "Thank you." "I promised." She gave me a rueful smile. "If

I know why you didn't get the money. I was wondering how much sixteen million dollars weighs." "I can tell you exactly. Bank gets hit, they tell us how many of each denomination was lost. Tally that up, you know how many bills; you have four hundred fifty-four bills in a pound, doesn't matter what denominations—just do the math. This particular sixteen million weighs eleven hundred forty-two pounds." Holman

Twenty-two miles west of the Salton Sea, one hundred sixty-two miles east of Los Angeles, yellow dust rooster-tailed behind them as the Escalade raced across the twilight desert. The sound system boomed so they could hear bad music over the eighty-mile-per-hour wind, what with the windows down to blow out the stink. Dennis

The air buzzed with the nervous palsy it gets when the wind freight-trains in from the deserts, dry as bone, and cooking the hillsides into tar-filled kindling that can snap into flames hot enough to melt an auto body.

Most of the homes were immaculate Spanish or Mediterranean villas, reminiscent of an earlier time and rich with genteel elegance. More Ross Macdonald than Raymond Chandler.

Hess said, "What the fuck?" I said, "Temperamental." SACs aren't used to being cut off. I touched her arm. "We

An older woman wearing breeches and riding boots pushed a stroller out of a driveway and into the street. I stopped to let her cross. She smiled, thanking me. I smiled, saying take your time. A tiny hand reached from the stroller and waved at the sky.

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.

In the back seat, Khalil Haddad leaned forward. Haddad was a thin, dark Yemeni drug runner who had been hauling khat into Mexico before the cartels shut him down. Now, he worked for the Syrian like Orlato and Ruiz. Orlato was certain Haddad talked shit about him to the Syrian, Arab to Arab, so Orlato hated the little bastard. Haddad

The zen of housecleaning allows one to reach inner peace.