Quotes from Robert Crais

Cole's interest was a tell. He wasn't expressing casual curiosity. He was all business, and carried himself like a man with a need to know. Scott didn't like the way Cole's friends were staring, like a couple of lions waiting to pounce. "I'd rather speak alone." "We're good." Cole

Daniel loved these damned hurricanes. He folded back the shutters, then opened the window. Rain hit him good. It tasted of salt and smelled of dead fish and weeds. The cat-five wind clawed through New Orleans at better than a hundred miles an hour, but back here in the alley—in a cheap one-room apartment over a po'boy shop—the wind was no stronger than an arrogant breeze. The

The next day I watched TV and read and lay on the couch and stared at my high-vaulted ceiling. Just after noon I showered and shaved and dressed and took a drive over to the County Medical Facility and asked them if I could see Mimi. They said no. I left the front and went around back and tried to sneak in, but a seventy-five-year-old security guard with narrow shoulders and a wide butt caught me and raised hell. It goes like that sometimes.

It's what we call a fanciful life construction. Also known as baloney.

He went out the front door. The sun was blinding after being in the dim house. He walked back to Perry's car, feeling like a boat without a rudder, trapped in a current. He had no place to go and no idea what to do.

The cat door clacked and the cat came in from the kitchen. When he saw Jillian he growled, deep and warlike. I said, "Beat it.

Amber said, "I love your earrings." The waitress rolled her eyes. "Boyfriend medicine." "Girl, don't I know!" They laughed together like besties forever. Tyson had seen Amber's magic too many times to count, but it still left him awed. People fell in love with her.

The Godfather doesn't call the police. He sends Luca Brasi.

Being a friend is hard." "If it was easy, anyone could do it." "I love smart women." "Smart women love you." "I'd better go." "Call me later.

Daniel said, all serious, "I asked you, you seen a zombie? They got'm here in this place, I know for a fact." Tolley

I spoke with Steve Brown today, the man who owns Smith's house, and I had another talk with Jared. I have to tell you some things, and you're not going to like it. I don't think Dru has been honest with you." Cole paused for Pike to react, but Pike gave him no more reaction than a department store mannequin. The cat left the edge of the deck, twined once through Pike's legs, then sat, its eyes narrow and watchful.

Karbo and Bender continued talking, but Pike sensed something off in how they related to each other. Karbo flashed a perfunctory smile and Bender seemed uncomfortable. Their handshake had been businesslike, and they stood a step too far apart. They seemed more like strangers who were meeting for the first time than friends who would commit a spur-of-the-moment abduction.

Solitude was a spell that freed her.

Stemms sniffed the air loudly, like a dog catching a scent. "I'm smelling bullshit." Harvey spoke again, voice mellow and calm, like a jazz man at two in the morning. "Relax, Jesse. What does she look like? Describe her.

So. Ixnay on the direct approach.

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

There were dozens of limos and taxis and MBs and Jaguars. Suitcases were going in and out and doormen in red uniforms were whistling for the next taxi in line and guys I took to be tourists who looked like they made a lot of money were with tall slender women who looked like they cost a lot of money to keep up. None of them looked like gunsels or thugs or art thief-maniacs, but you can never be sure.

More overblown, effusive praise for Daniel's efforts. "Thank

The clerk was a thin guy in his early twenties with limp hair and a spray of zits on his chin. His eyes were lifeless and dull, like a daydreaming cow.

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

I hadn't heard it when I'd been in the house before, but when I was in the house before there'd been other people and things going on. Now the house seemed abandoned and desolate. Life in an Andrew Wyeth landscape.

Men like Neff and Hensman lived between raindrops and worked under eaves.

The best dog training was based on the reward system. You did not punish a dog for doing wrong, you rewarded the dog for doing right.

The front door was a standard wood entry, stained dark to match the house. A Master deadbolt was set in the frame above the knob lock. Cole pulled on a pair of vinyl gloves, selected a pick and a tension wrench from his pick kit, and went to work. Two minutes for the deadbolt, one for the knob. On-the-job training courtesy of the United States Army. Cole