In the afternoon, he went to see Lusk again for an update. It was hard to guess how the man had managed it without abandoning his newsstand, but Lusk said the light was green. He’d found what Keegan needed. He gave Keegan an address and told him to bring the money in cash.

THE MEETING WAS set for seven o’clock, but Keegan was running early. The address Lusk had given him—scrawled in dull pencil on a page torn from a paperback book—took him to a residential street on the south side of the Silver Lake reservoir. Lusk said the gun would be waiting for him. No further elaboration was offered. No hint of who or what Keegan might find there.

Keegan looked at his watch again. Six-forty. He’d be cutting it close. He’d best be back in the cottage before the lieutenant arrived in his fancy sedan for another shot of bourbon. There would be fewer questions for Keegan to answer if Moore found him at home, fewer lies to invent.

The street was steep and narrow, with parked cars crowding both sides. Nora sat beside him in the MG’s passenger seat, looking out the half-open window at the bungalows set back at odd angles from the road. Each lot was a new terraced level cut into the hillside, like a great suburban staircase rising to heaven.

Around a blind curve, the road grew yet steeper, and Keegan downshifted to first. He had to drive slowly enough to keep track of the house numbers he passed—black numerals affixed to porch posts or above lintels. He rode the clutch to keep the car from stalling, one hand on the parking brake, in case he started to slip backwards. The dusky light made it easier to make out the even numbers on the east side of the road. He was looking for 65 ½. Whether that was odd or even, he had no idea.

When he got to the high fifties, he found a parking space between a Thunderbird and an old pickup that was facing the wrong direction. Better to approach the house on foot, he thought. It would give him more time to see what he was getting into.

It took him a few tries to parallel-park at such a slant, and then he let the MG roll back until the front wheel bounced against the curb, pointing out towards the middle of the street. He set the parking brake and cut the engine.

The dog looked at him now with her head cocked to one side. Keegan reached past her and cranked the window up, so it was only open a couple of inches. He did the same to his own and then scratched Nora behind the ear. “You’re staying here,” he told her. “Be brave. I’ll be as quick as I can.”