Theo almost slapped his forehead: idiot! He really needed to stop getting stoned on the job. He reached up and carefully brushed her hair away from her face. The expression he found there was one of bemusement.

“You don’t have to be so careful. I don’t bite.”

Theo smiled. “Well, actually…”

“Oh fuck you. You going to take me to County?”

“Should I?”

“I’ll just be back in seventy-two and the milk in my refrigerator will be spoiled.”

“Then I’d better take you home.”

He started the car and circled the block to head back to the Fly Rod Trailer Court. He would have taken a back way if he could, to save Molly some embarrassment, but the Fly Rod was right off Cypress, Pine Cove’s main street. As they passed the bank, people getting out of their cars turned to stare. Molly made faces at them out the window.

“That doesn’t help, Molly.”

“Fuck ‘em. Fans just want a piece of me. I can give ’em that. I’ve got my soul.”

“Mighty generous of you.”

“If you weren’t a fan, I wouldn’t let you do this.”

“Well, I am. Huge fan.” Actually, he’d never heard of her until the first time he was called to take her away from H.P.‘s Cafe, where she had attacked the espresso machine because it wouldn’t quit staring at her.

“No one understands. Everyone takes a piece of you, then there’s nothing left for you. Even the meds take a piece of you. Do you have any idea what I’m talking about here?”

Theo looked at her. “I have such a mind-numbing fear of the future that the only way I can function at all is with equal amounts of denial and drugs.”

“Jeez, Theo, you’re really fucked up.”

“Thanks.”

“You can’t go around saying crazy shit like that.”

“I don’t normally. It’s been a tough day so far.”

He turned into the Fly Rod Trailer Court: twenty run-down trailers perched on the bank of Santa Rosa Creek, which carried only a trickle of water after the long, dry summer. A grove of cypress trees hid the trailer park from the main street and the view of passing tourists. The chamber of commerce had made the owner of the park take down the sign at the entrance. The Fly Rod was a dirty little secret for Pine Cove, and they kept it well.