O
n the wooden deck attached to Malinda’s ground-floor studio in their three-room A-frame in Sausalito, Lance read the letter and made a mental note to reply to Dr. Abellana as soon as he finished his latest assignment, a four-part series on a subject he had long requested for approval.
Coincidentally, as it always seemed to happen whenever he’d receive additional word on Luisito, music had been on his mind, in fact like a humongous halo enveloping the air around his thinking cap. He had been poring over further notes he had scribbled on yellow ruled paper, the last time he set out for Point Reyes and spoke with Archie Stockton, California’s foremost expert on cetaceans.
“A New Key for Songs of the Humpback Whale,” Lance had titled his feature. Malinda took one look at it over his shoul
