The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove

you're calmed down. Do I need to put you in the backseat?"
    "It wasn't a fit," Molly said. "I was defending myself. He wanted a piece of me." She lifted her head and turned to Theo, but her hair still covered her face.
    "Are you taking your drugs?"
    "Meds, they call them meds."
    "Sorry," Theo said. "Are you taking your meds?"
    She nodded.
    "Wipe your hair out of your face, Molly, I can barely understand you."
    "Handcuffs, whiz kid."
    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 theFly Rod Trailer Court. He would have taken a back way if he could, to save Molly some embarrassment, but the Fly Rod was right offCypress , 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 theFly 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.
    Theo stopped in front of Molly's trailer, a vintage fifties single-wide with small louvered windows and streaks of rust running from the roof. He got Molly out of the car and took off the handcuffs.
    Theo said, "I'm going to see Val Riordan. You want me to have her call something in to the pharmacy for you?"
    "No, I've got my meds. I don't like 'em, but I got 'em." She rubbed her wrists."Why you going to see Val?You going nuts?"
    "Probably, but this is business.You going to be okay now?"
    "I have to study my lines."
    "Right."Theo started to go,then turned. "Molly, what were you doing at the Slug at eight in the morning?"
    "How should I know?"
    "If the guy at the Slug had been a local, I'd be taking you to County right now, you know that?"
    "I wasn't having a fit. He wanted a piece of me."
    "Stay out of the Slug for a while. Stay home.Just groceries, okay?"
    "You won't talk to the tabloids?"
    He handed her a business card. "Next time someone tries to take a piece of you, call me. I always have the cell phone with me."
    She pulled up her sweater and tucked the card into the waistband of her tights, then, still holding up her sweater, she turned and walked to her trailer with a slow sway. Thirty or fifty, under the sweater she still had a figure. Theo watched her walk, forgetting for a minutewho she was. Without looking back, she said, "What if it's you, Theo? Who do I call then?"
    Theo shook his head like a dog trying to clear water from its ears, then crawled into the Volvo and drove away. I've been alone too long, he thought. two The Sea Beast The cooling pipes at the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant were all fashioned from the finest stainless steel. Before they were installed, they were x-rayed, ultrasounded, and pressure-tested to be sure that they could never break, and after being welded into place, the welds were also x-rayed and tested. The radioactive steam from the core left