‘B’ is for Burglar- Chapter 15

eased-

conversational-

Summary: (What they said, summarized.) The key rattled in the lock and my head whipped up. Fear shot through me like a jolt of electricity and my heart started thudding so hard it made my whole neck pulse. My single advantage was that I knew about them before they knew about me. I snatched up the flashlight, tucking the plastic-wrapped packet of weights under my arm. I was already on the move, assessing my options with a brain that felt slow and cold, as though plunged in an icy surf. My temptation was to head up to the second floor, but I scotched the impulse. There was no cover up there and no access to the roof. I eased to my left, toward the kitchen, my hearing opened to the full. I could pick up low conversational tones out there. They were probably trying to get their bearings just shining a flashlight here and there. If Marty hadn’t been in the house since the night of the fire, she might be reacting to the damage, momentarily repelled as I had been by the charring, decay, and ruin. They hadn’t figured it out yet, but soon they would. The minute they saw that window frame, they’d start looking for me. The basement door was ajar, a vertical black slot against the gloom of the hallway. I allowed myself one flicker of light from the flashlight and slipped through the crack, descending as quickly as I could without making noise. I knew the slanted basement doors leading out to the side yard were padlocked shut, but at least I’d find someplace to hide down there.

Main Characters: Everyone

Setting: The last chapter focuses on everyone, where they live and what they have been through as a team throughout the book. Kinsey was the main character in the overall book, so it focused on her for a while. And her story was truly amazing, and the things that she has done to be able to do what she was doing in the book.

Favorite Quote: “Come on, Leonard. Let’s pack it in.”

‘B’ is for Burglar- Chapter 14

traditional-

pathologist-

Summary: (What they were saying, summarized.) I read through everything quickly, just to get an overview, and then I went back and noted the details that interested me. The official version of the story, as much as I knew it, and the interviews with Leonard Grice, his sister Lily, neighbors, the fire inspector, and the first police officer on the scene more or less spelled out events in the same way I’d been told. Leonard and Marty were scheduled to go out for their traditional Tuesday-night dinner with Leonard’s widowed sister, Mrs. Howe. Marty wasn’t feeling well and canceled out at the last-minute. Leonard and Lily went out as planned and got back to the Howes’ at about nine P.M., at which point a call was put through to Marty to let her know they were home. Both Mr. Grice and his sister spoke to Marty and she finally terminated the call in order to respond to a knock at the door. According to both Lily and Leonard, they had a cup of coffee and chatted for a bit. He left at approximately ten o’clock, arriving at Via Madrina twenty-some minutes later to find that his house had burned. By then, the blaze had been brought under control and his wife’s body was being removed from the partially destroyed residence. He collapsed and was revived by paramedics at the scene. Tillie Ahlberg was the one who’d spotted the smoke and she’d turned in an alarm at 9:55.

Main Characters:  Leonard Grice, Marty , Lily, Grice, Elaine, William

Setting: It has seemed as though the book has settled down a lot, and things are a lot more controlled and relaxing. It’s the weekend in the book, and everyone is enjoying their weekend , so the setting is in everyone’s home. The next chapter will most likely be on a monday and all of them back to their normal jobs.

Favorite Quote: “I’m going to have to turn in,”

‘B’ is for Burglar- Chapter 13

combustion-

superficial-

Summary: (What they were saying, summarized.) The basement stairs were intact. The fire had apparently been contained before it reached this far. The damage to the rooms above seemed to be the result of some accelerate that had ensured at least a superficial combustion throughout the house. The beam from my flashlight cut through the dark, illuminating a narrow, moving path filled with things I didn’t want to touch. I angled the light along the joists, tracing the beams to the whole where daylight spilled down. Had the floor burned through and the body tumbled into the basement? I moved closer, craning to see better. The edges of the hole looked cut to me. Maybe the fire inspector had taken samples of the boards for lab tests. To my left, I could see the furnace, a silent squat bulge of gray, with sooty ducking extending in all directions. The floor was hard-packed dirt and cracked concrete, the entire space filled with junk. Paint cans and old window screens were stacked up under the stairs and there was an ancient galvanized sink in the corner, the pipes corroded away. I toured the perimeter, poking the light into spaces were eight-legged creatures stuttered away from me, horrified. Later I was glad I’d been such a conscientious little bun, but at the time, I only wanted to get out of there as quickly as I could. An empty house always seems to make those noises that have you wondering it an ax murderer is creeping through the premises in search of prey. I shone the flashlight over to the far wall where the stairs jutted up a short distance to the bolted double doors leading out to the side yard.

Main Characters: Mr. Hoover, Elaine, Kinsey Millhone, William.

Setting: The book is slowly coming to an end, so the story took place mostly in a police station where this man William was asked questions. And they have discovered that he was the one that did this crime. It was a big time in the book, and this is where everyone can breathe better, it’s a time in the book that s relaxing.

Favorite Quote: “Just a minute, dear, and I’ll turn the television down. I’m watching my program.”

‘B’ is for Burglar- Chapter 12

Hoover-

tenants’-

Summary: (What they were saying, summarized.) At nine the next morning, I drove over to Via Madrina. Tillie didn’t answer my buzz so I stood for a minute, surveying the list of tenants’ names on the directory. There was a Wm. Hoover in apartment, right next door to Elaine’s. I gave him a buzz. I could hear a murmur of conversation and then the door buzzed at me by way of consent. I had to jump to catch it while the lock would still open. I took the elevator up a floor. Apartment 10 was just across from me when the elevator door slid open. Hoover was standing in the hall in a short blue terry-cloth robe with snags. I estimated his age at thirty-four, thirty-five. He was slight, maybe five foot six, with slim, muscular legs faintly matted with down. His dark hair was tousled and he looked as if he hadn’t shaved for two days. His eyes were still baggy from sleep. He indicated the kitchen to the right. His apartment was the flip image of Elaine’s and my guess was that their two master bedrooms shared a wall. I glanced at the living room which, like hers, opened off the entryway and also looked down on the Grices’ property next door. Where Elaine’s apartment had a view of the street, this one didn’t have much to recommend it-only a glimpse of the mountains off to the left, partially obscured by the two rows of Italian stone pines that grow along Via Madrina.

Main Characters: Mr. Hoover, Elaine, Kinsey Millhone, William.

Setting: In this chapter they move locations a couple of times, and you learn about who did this crime. His name was William, they only gave the name, not any information about him.

Favorite Quote: “Oh God, I woke you up,”

‘B’ is for Burglar- Chapter 11

frazzled-

converted-

Summary: (What they were saying, summarized.) I ate dinner that night at Rosie’s, a little place half a block down from my apartment. It’s a cross between a neighborhood bar and an old-fashioned beanery, sandwiched between a Laundromat on the corner and an appliance repair shop that a man named McPherson operates out of his house. All three of these businesses have been in operation for over twenty-five years and are now, in theory, illegal, representing zoning violations of a profound and offensive sort, at least to people who live somewhere else. Every other year, some overzealous citizen gets a bug up his butt and goes before the city council denouncing the outrage of this breach of residential integrity. In the off years, I think money changes hands. Rosie herself is probably sixty-five, Hungarian, short, and top-heavy, a creature of murmurs andhennaed hair growing low on her forehead. She wears lipstick in a burnt-orange shade that usually exceeds the actual shape of her mouth, giving the impression that she once had a much larger set of lips. She uses a brown eyebrow pencil lavishly, making her eyes look stern and reproachful. The tipof her nose comes close to meeting her upper lip.

Main Characters: Mrs. Ochsner,  Henry Pitts, Marty Grice,

Setting: The setting in this chapter would be the police station because they have found someone who they think could be the person who has done this to the bank, but in the book it has not mentioned any names of anybody or any information. So it leads you guessing and wondering for every chapter to come.

Favorite Quote:  “Hello. Have a seat.”

‘B’ is for Burglar- Chapter 10

peered-

excursion-

Summary: It was now nearly three o’clock and I was feeling frazzled. I’d been up since two A.M. with just a brief time-out for sleep at dawn before the long-distance call from Mrs. Ochsner had wakened me. I couldn’t face the office again, so I headed for my apartment and changed into my running clothes. I use the word apartment here in its loosest sense. Actually I live in a converted one-car garage, maybe fifteen feet square, tricked out as living room, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, closet, and laundry facility. I’ve always liked living in small spaces. For months as a child, just after my parents were killed, I spent my spare time in a cardboard box that I filled with pillows and pretended was a sailing vessel on its way to some new land. It doesn’t take an analyst to interpret this excursion on my part, but it’s carried over into my adult life, manifesting itself now in all sorts of things. I drive small cars and I favor “littleness” in any form, so this place suits me exactly. For two hundred dollars a month I have everything I want, including a debonair eighty-one-year-old landlord named Henry Pitts. I peered in his back window on my way out, and spotted him in the kitchen rolling out puff pastry dough. He’s a former commercial baker who supplements his social security these days doing up breads and sweets, which he sells to or trades with local merchants. I tapped on the glass and he motioned me in. Henry is what I like to think of as an octogenarian “hunk,” tall and lean with close- cropped white hair and eyes that are periwinkle blue, full of curiosity. Age has boiled him down to a concentrate, all male, compassionate and prudent and wry. I can’t say that the years have invested him with spirituality, or infused him with any special wisdom, second sight, profundity, or depth. I mean, let’s not overstate the case here. He was smart enough when he first started out and age hasn’t diminished that a whit.

Main Characters: Leonard Grice,  Mrs. Howe, the doctor, Mrs. Ochsner

Setting: In this chapter they are back to the apartment , because they got a suspect, and it turns out he lives in the same apartment as she does. They knock on the door, and this man is there. They brought him into the lab where the questioned him. So actually a couple of settings in this chapter.

Favorite Quote: what if she saw who killed Marty?

‘B’ is for Burglar- Chapter 9

dingy-

intervals-

Summary: (What they said summarized.) It was 1:30 by now and as nearly as I could remember, I hadn’t eaten lunch. I pulled into a fast-food restaurant, parked, and went in. I could have hollered my order into a clown’s mouth and eaten in the car as I drove, but I wanted to show I had class. I wolfed down a cheeseburger, fries, and a Coke for a dollar sixty-nine and was back on the streets again in seven minutes flat. The house where Leonard Grice was supposedly staying was located in a dingy tract of houses just off the freeway, a neighborhood of winding streets that had been named after states, starting with the East Coast. I rambled down Maine, Massachusetts, New York, and Rhode Island Drives, getting stuck in tricky cul-de-sacs where Vermont and New Jersey turned into dead ends. It looked like the builder had gotten as far as Colorado Avenue before the money ran out or his knowledge of geography failed. There was a long stretch of vacant lots with stakes visible at intervals, each tied with a little white rag to mark off the undeveloped parcels of land. On Carolina, a few enterprising souls had faced their homes with fieldstone or cedar shingle, and some had opted for an Oriental effect-trellises of plywood with geometric cutouts that were meant to look Chinese, the roof corners tilted up for that gala 1950s pagoda look. Compared to more recent tracts on the outskirts of Santa Teresa, these houses were shabby and the evidence of poor construction floated on the surface like chicken fat on homemade soup. There were cracks in the stucco, window shutters askew. The veneer on the front doors was peeling off in strips.

Main Characters: Leonard Grice,  Mrs. Howe, the doctor,

 Setting: Two main settings in this chapter for sure, the one being the bank for all the evidence, and the second one is the lab where the detective scanned the DNA and found out some names and people to start asking questions. Every chapter gets more intense for sure. And the more the book goes on, the more things there getting and I wouldn’t be surprised if they found out who did it next chapter.

Favorite Quote: Oh, that’s right. I think somebody else mentioned that. Well, maybe she’ll call when she gets back,”

‘B’ is for Burglar- Chapter 8

charred-

recollect-

Summary: (What they said, summarized.) Mr. Snyder returned to the living room and sat down heavily on the couch. “Now then.” “What can you tell me about that fire next door?” I asked. “I saw the place. It looks awful.” He nodded, preparing himself as though for a television interview, staring straight ahead. “Well now, the fire engine woke me up ten o’clock at night. Two of ’em. I don’t sleep good anyhow and I heard the siren come right up here close so I got up and went out. Neighbors was runnin’ from ever’ which way. Black smoke outen that house like you never saw. These firemen, they bashed their way in and pretty soon flames et up the front porch. Whole backside got saved. They found Marty, that was Leonard’s wife, layin’ on the floor. It’d be right about over there,” he said, pointing toward the front door.  He was out to dinner with his sister as I hear tell and he comes home to find his own wife dead. His knees give out and down he went. Right on the sidewalk with me standin’ not this far away. Turned white and dropped like a big hand had given him a thump and knocked him out. It was the awfullest thing you ever saw. They brought her out zipped up in a plastic sack-” “How’d Tillie happen to see her?” I interrupted. “I mean, if she was zipped up in a body bag?”

Main Characters: Mr. Snyder, Marty, Leonard, Mr. Grice,

Setting:  The setting in this chapter hasn’t changed much from the other chapters. They are still investigating the bank, so that’s where they are spending most of their time. They have got some fingerprints of possible suspects, and they also have DNA. The DNA and fingerprints both lead to the same person, so that’s who they are trying to find and are wanting to ask him some questions asap.

Favorite Quote: “Nobody. I’m talkin’ to myself,”

‘B’ is for Burglar- Chapter 7

Debris-

Stepping-stones-

Summary: (What they say, summarized.) I found Tillie spraying down the walk, a rolling tumble of leaves and debris pushed along by the force of the jet. Water dripped from the feather palms, the rubbery scent of hose mingling with the odor of wet earth. Stepping-stones were tucked in among the giant ferns, though why anyone would want to walk back in there was beyond me. It looked like a shadowy haven for daddy long legs. Tillie smiled when she saw me and released the trigger nozzle, shutting off the spray. She was wearing jeans and a T-shirt, her spare from giving her a girlish look even in her sixties. “Did you ever get any sleep?” I asked. “No, and I’m not going to stay in that apartment ’til the windows are fixed. I may have an alarm system put in too. I came out here just to busy myself. Hosing the walks is restful, don’t you think? It’s one of the pleasures of adulthood. When I was a kid, my dad never would let me have a turn.” “Have you been down to the police station yet?”

Main Characters: Elaine, Tillie, Kinsey, Mr. Snyder,

Setting: There are only two main settings in this chapter, one being the lap of course. Also the newspaper place, getting more information on where this woman was killed and more.

Favorite Quote: “Who’s at the door?”

‘B’ is for Burglar- Chapter 6

Termnating-

Disconcerted

 Summary:(What they said, summarized.) I stayed in the shower until the hot water ran out and then I got dressed, pulling on jeans and a cotton sweater, zipping boots up to my knees. I plopped on a soft leather hat with a wide brim and studied the effect in the bathroom mirror. It would do. I headed for the office first and wrote a letter to Beverly Danziger, terminating our professional relationship. I was pretty sure she’d be thoroughly disconcerted by that and it gave me a nice feeling. I went next door to the offices of California Fidelity Insurance and made a photocopy of my itemized bill to her, marked it “final,” and tucked it in with the letter and a copy of my final report. Then I headed over to the police station on Floresta and talked to a Sergeant Jonah Robb about a missing persons report on Elaine Boldt, watching his fingers fly across the keys as he typed the information I gave him on the form. He looked like he was in his late thirties, his body compact in his uniform. He was maybe twenty pounds overweight, not an unattractive amount, but something he’d have to cope with soon. Darkhair trimmed very short, smooth rounded face, a dent in his left ring finger where he’d recentlyworn a wedding ring. He shot a look at me at that point. Blue eyes flecked with green.

Main Characters: Beverly Danziger, Elaine Boldt, Kinsey,  Lieutenant Dolan, Con Dolan ,

Setting: In this chapter something very important happens, so they spend most of their time in the lab once again. What makes this chapter so important is that this burglar was in the newspaper for killing this housewife, not only is he a burglar, he is a murderer. So this case just got more serious and have a whole new problem to deal with.

Favorite Quote: “I’ll help you out sometime too,”