He grabs shots of the whole house with each camera and then jots down a note describing each shot and giving the time and date that he took the picture. He notes that he used Minolta cameras, notes the serial numbers of both cameras, the type of film and its ASA. He speaks the same information into the tape recorder, along with any observations he may want to have for his file.

Jack takes these notes because he knows that you think you're going to remember what you took and why, but you won't. You got maybe a hundred losses you're working at any given point and you get them mixed up.

Or as Billy Hayes poetically puts it, "It's writ, or it's shit."

Billy's from Arizona.

So Jack says, "Frame One, shot of house taken from south angle. August 28, 1997. West wing of house shows severe damage. Exterior walls standing but will probably have to be torn down and rebuilt. Windows blasted out. Hole in roof."

The easiest way to the other side of the house is through the central section, so Jack lets himself in the front door.

Jack opens it and he's looking straight out at the ocean like he's going to fall into it, because there are big glass sliders with a view that stretches from Newport Beach right down to the Mexican islands to the left. Catalina Island straight ahead of you, Dana Strands just down to your left, and below that Dana Strand Beach.

And miles and miles of blue ocean and sky.

You're talking two million bucks just for the view.

The big glass door opens onto a deck about the size of Rhode Island. Below the deck is a sloping lawn, a rectangle of green in all this blue, and in the green there's another rectangle of blue, which is the swimming pool.

A brick wall borders the lawn. Trees and shrubs line the side walls, and the trees and shrubs are edged by a border of flowers. Down to the left there's a pad with a clay tennis court.