Perchance to Dream

    Norris didn't speak, but he mixed two glasses of champagne and brandy and handed me one. We drank in silence. The forest dripped, the smell of the orchids was like the smell of dying beauty, the rotten sweetness of a prostitute, General Sternwood had said. We finished our drink without a word. Norris standing, me sitting in the wicker chair where I had sat the first time Fd met the General.

    "He had the soldier's eye, Norris," I said. "Like yours."

    "If I may say so, sir," Norris said, "not unlike yours."

    Then we put our glasses down on the tea wagon and I shook Norris's hand and walked away from there. On the way out I saw Eddie Mars get out of his car and stroll to the front door. He didn't see me. I walked out to the street past the slow sweep of the lawn sprinkler and got in my car and drove away and didn't look back.

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

CHAPTER 16

CHAPTER 17

CHAPTER 18

CHAPTER 19

CHAPTER 20

CHAPTER 21

CHAPTER 22

CHAPTER 23

CHAPTER 24

CHAPTER 25

CHAPTER 26

CHAPTER 27

CHAPTER 28

CHAPTER 29

CHAPTER 30

CHAPTER 31

CHAPTER 32

CHAPTER 33

CHAPTER 34

CHAPTER 35

CHAPTER 36