“The brunette was conducting tests on the collected blood when the older woman came into her laboratory to get the child’s photo. The old woman took the picture to a pale-skinned woman with red hair, who in turn fixed it with a morbidly curious look before handing it back.”

“The night-soil men can see a bird walking in trees. It isn't a bird. It is a woman who has removed her skin and is on her way to drink the blood of her secret enemies. It is a woman who has left her skin i a corner of a house made out of wood. It is a woman who is reasonable and admires honeybees in the hibiscus.”

“When they turned, Pelletier and Espinoza saw an older woman in a white blouse and black skirt, a woman with a figure like Marlene Dietrich, as Pelletier would say much later, a woman who despite her years was still as strong willed as ever, a woman who didn't cling to the edge of the abyss but plunged into it with curiosity and elegance. A woman who plunged into the abyss sitting down.”

“Cassie's first thought when she saw the old woman was, What a marvelous thing plastic surgery is. The woman was younger than Althea, but looked fifty years older”

“When things got tough, Sabina, like any normal, red-blooded American woman, turned up the volume.”

“What has that little tramp got that we haven’t?” asked the brunette archly. “We’ve got a whole lot more.” The red head ran her hands suggestively down her womanly curves. “And there are three of us,”