Tick Tock by Dean Koontz

Author:Dean Koontz
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Mystery, Private investigators, Detective and mystery stories, Vietnamese Americans, Novelists, Horror, Fiction - Horror, Southern, Fiction, Romance, Vietnamese Americans - California, Horror & Ghost Stories, Suspense, Horror - General, California, Horror fiction, General, Private investigators - California
ISBN: 9780553582925
Published: 2000-10-03T07:00:00+00:00

Newport Harbour, home to one of the largest armadas of private yachts in the world, was enclosed on the north by the curve of the continental shoreline and on the south by a three-mile-long peninsula that extended west to east and separated the hundreds of protected boat docks and moorings from the surges of the Pacific.

The homes on the shoreline and on the five islands within the harbour were among the priciest in southern California. Del lived not in a less expensive home on one of the land-locked blocks of Balboa Peninsula, but in a sleek three-story contemporary house that faced the harbour.

As they approached the place, Tommy leaned forward, staring out of the windshield in astonishment.

Because she had left her garage-door opener in the van, Del parked the stolen Honda on the street. The police wouldn't be looking for it yet—not until the shifts changed at the bakery.

Tommy continued to stare through the blurring rain after Del switched off the windshield wipers. In the burnishing glow of the landscape lighting that under lit the queen palms, he could see that every corner of the house was softly rounded. The patinated-copper windows were rectangular with radius corners, and the white stucco was towelled so smoothly that it appeared to be as slick as marble, especially when wet with rain. It was less like a house than like a small, gracefully designed cruise ship that had run aground.

“You live here?” he asked wonderingly.

“Yeah.” She opened her door. “Come on. Scootie's wondering where I am. He's worried about me.”

Tommy got out of the Honda and followed her through the rain to a gate at one side of the house, where she entered a series of numbers—the disarming code—into a security keypad.

“The rent must be astronomical,” he said, dismayed to think that she might not be a renter at all but might be living here with the man who owned the place.

“No rent. No mortgage. It's mine,” she said, unlocking the gate with keys that she had fished from her purse.

As he closed the heavy gate behind them, Tommy saw that it was made of patinated geometric copper panels of different shapes and textures and depths. The resultant Art Deco pattern reminded him of the mural on her van.

Following her along a covered, pale-quartzite walkway in which flecks of mica glimmered like diamond chips under the light from the low path lamps, he said, “But this must've cost a fortune.”

“Sure did,” she said brightly.

The walkway led into a romantic courtyard paved with the same quartzite, sheltered by five more dramatically lighted queen palms, softened with beds of ferns, and filled with the scent of night-blooming jasmine.

Bewildered, he said, “I thought you were a waitress.”

“I told you before—being a waitress is what I do. An artist is what I am.”

“You sell your paintings?”

“Not yet.”

“You didn't pay for this from tips.”

“That's for sure,” she agreed, but offered no explanation.

Lamps glowed warmly in one of the downstairs rooms facing onto the courtyard. As Tommy followed Del to the front door, those windows went dark.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.