“Will she come back?”
“With doves on her shoulders or lightning bolts.”
Father Rattigan walked me to the front of the cathedral. “And how does she look? Like a siren singing to lure damned sailors to drown. Are you a poor damn sailor?”
“No, just someone who writes people on Mars, Father.”
“I hope they are happier than we are. Wait! Good Lord, there was a thing she said. That she was joining a new church. And might not come back to douse my ears.”
“What church, Father?”
“Chinese. Chinese and Grauman’s. Some church!”
“To many it is. You’ve been there?”
“To see King of Kings, I found the forecourt superior to the film. You look as if you’re about to break and run.”
“To the new church, Father. Chinese. Grauman’s.”
“Stay off the quicksand footprints. Many sinners have sunk there. What film’s playing?”
“Abbott and Costello in Jack and the Beanstalk.”
“Lamentable.”
“Lamentable.” I ran.
“Mind the quicksand !” Father Rattigan called after me as I raced out the doors.
Chapter Sixteen
On the way across town I was a hot-air balloon full of Great Expectations. Crumley kept hitting my elbow to make me calm down, calm down. But we had to get to that other church.
“Church!” Crumley muttered. “Since when do double features sideline the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost?”
“King Kong! That’s when! 1932! Fay Wray kissed my cheek.”
“Holy mackerel.” Crumley switched on the car radio.
“—afternoon—” a voice said. “Mount Lowe—”
“Listen!” I said, my stomach a chunk of ice.
The voice said, “Death … police … Clarence Rattigan … victim …” A flare of static. “Freak accident … victim smothered, smothered … old newspapers. Recall brothers in Bronx? Saved stacks of old papers that fell and killed the brothers? Newspapers …”
“Turn it off.”
Crumley turned it off.
“That poor lost soul,” I said.
“Was he really that lost?”
“Lost as you can get without giving it the old heave-ho.”
“You want to drive by?”
“Drive by,” I said at last, making noises.