This is a work of fiction. I do mention historical events, such as the Federal Theater Project, the Dies Committee, HUAC, and some figures active in the arts in the nineteen-thirties, like Shirley Graham, as part of the background of the novel, All characters who actually play a role in the story, as well as events like the destruction of the Fourth Amendment, are solely the fabrication of a brain made frenzied by chronic insomnia. Any resemblance to any real person, institution, government or legislation is purely coincidental.

CHAPTERS

1. A Walk on the Wild Side

2. The Iron Dowager

3. Hands Across the Water

4. Once More Unto the Pokey, Dear Friends

5. Stochastic Excursion

6. Neighborhood Joint

7. No Rest for the Sick

8. Twinkle,Twinkle, Little Light (Wonder If You’re There Tonight)

9. Ice Cube Editor

10. Trackless Desert

11. A Child’s Garden of Verses

12. The Wabash Cannonball

13. Quicksand?

14. Gaps in the Newsreel

15. House of the Dead

16. Burke and Hare

17. Timmy’s in the Well

18. Crocodile in the Moat

19. Under the Dragon’s Spell

20. Lair of the Star Chamber Man

21. Jigsaw Puzzle

22. But Where Are the Pieces of the Jigsaw?

23. The Family Retainer

24. Scuba Diver

25. Scaling the North Face

26. The Jaws of a Giant Clam

27. Well, Howdy, Lieutenant

28. When You Need a Ride-Steal a Car

29. Back to the Briar Patch

30. Warming Up

31. Superhero

32. Golf Cart Hearse

33. Patriot Acts

34. What Bill of Rights?

35. Among Friends-for a Change

36. Bedside Manner

37. A Boy’s Best Friend

38. Conversation Between Hardheads

39. Dirty Laundry

40. Tangle,Tangle, Lives Entangled

41. Charity Begins at Home

42. Silence Is-?

43. Stiffed at the Morgue

44. Boy Wonder

45. The Ice Cube Man Cometh

46. Hamster on a Wheel

47. Tough on a Rhino Hide

48. Seizures

49. Terrorist on the Run-or in an SUV

50. Loves’ Labors Lost

51. The Dead Speak

52. Someone’s Packing

53. Death for the Undeserving

54. Unnatural Sleep

55. Shoot-Out at the Eagle River Corral

56. Death Notices

57. Lovers Lost-and Found

BLACKLIST

CHAPTER 1

A Walk on the Wild Side

The clouds across the face of the moon made it hard for me to find my way. I’d been over the grounds yesterday morning, but in the dark everything is different. I kept stumbling on tree roots and chunks o? brick from the crumbling walks.

I was trying not to make any noise, on the chance that someone really was lurking about, but I was more concerned about my safety: I didn’t want to sprain an ankle and have to crawl all the way back to the road. At one point I tripped on a loose brick and landed smack on my tailbone. My eyes teared with pain; I sucked in air to keep from crying out. As I rubbed the sore spot, I wondered whether Geraldine Graham had seen me fall. Her eyes weren’t that good, but her binoculars held both image stabilizers and nightvision enablers.