Carol Whiting was not at home when they tried the front door of the tiny redbrick house in Santa Monica. Or maybe she was and her brother-in-law had warned her that he had given out her address. Alison asked Eric what story he had fed the brother-in-law, but Eric was evasive. He just said he had his “ways.” There was nothing to do but hang out near there until the woman came home. Eric took her to a restaurant, but she couldn’t even eat her salad. They tried the house again, found no one there, and then Eric took her to a sci-fi film about a future society of humans who wanted to be robots. Alison fell asleep in the movie. She hadn’t slept the previous night after hearing about Kipp’s death. She did sleep now through two showings of the movie. When Eric woke her it was ten o’clock at night. He asked if she’d been having nightmares. Apparently she had often kicked and clawed at the air while unconscious. But she’d had no dreams that she could recall.
