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QUARTERS HALPERN HAD passed by the house on the corner of Montclair and 6th too many times to count. The white stucco was stained yellow by water damage and rust. The front windows, each boarded up with heavy plywood, had a crown of soot where the flames had burst through the glass and licked the sides of the building. Even the “reduced” sticker on the real estate company’s FOR SALE sign had faded to a sun-bleached cream, speckled with dirt the ocean breezes swirled in from the Hollywood Hills.
Quarters had started to move his things in slowly. The back door, where the fire never touched the structure of the house, was left exposed, devoid of plywood barriers. It wasn’t difficult to work the lock open, even with his poor breaking and entering skills. The ease of his entry ma
