17A moon half gone from the full glowed through a ring of mist among the high branches of the eucalyptus trees on Laverne Terrace. A radio sounded loudly from a house low down the hill. The boy swung the car over to the box hedge in front of Geiger’s house, killed the motor and sat looking straight before him with both hands on the wheel. No light showed through Geiger’s hedge.
I said: ‘Anybody home, son?’
‘You ought to know.’
‘How would I know?’
‘Go —— yourself.’
‘That’s how people get false teeth.’
He showed me his in a tight grin. Then kicked the door open and got out. I scuttled out after him. He stood with his fists on his hips, looking silently at the house above the top of the hedge.
‘All right,’ I said. ‘You have a key. Let’s go on in.’
‘Who said I had a key?’
‘Don’t kid m
