(3 of 3)
" They said we would stay overnight in San Francisco, so I could rest up a little, and fly out in the morning. I said that would be nice. They said maybe the money problem could be resolved in my favor. Like a kind of unofficial reward. Like, maybe, a bounty. I said that would be nice. I looked out the car window at the tall evergreens and wondered why all the birds had left this part of the world. Jake turned the wipers on, smearing the small sad rain. I think they were glad to stop trying to relate to me.
They felt uneasy about me, about being close to me in a small car. I think they felt not exactly certain of what I might do next. And I knew they would not have felt better about it if I had told them I didn't have the faintest notion, either, of what I might do next, today, tomorrow, or ever."
*Every McGee novel, from the first, The Deep Blue Goodbye (1964), has had a hue in its title. MacDonald explains that this is a mnemonic device to help readers avoid buying the same book twice, an all too familiar experience for thriller addicts.