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James PATTERSON they were nothing like the demons he'd heard about in church. Noel had never forgotten the way those kids looked. The way they'd turned into old men and old women. They were like zom- bies trapped in children’s bodies. And now, in America, Noel's been given a chance to help other kids. That’s what the police have told him, at least. Noel is a sanitation worker. Still strong at fifty, and lucky enough to have found his way to Palm Beach, he gets in to work before anyone else and keeps his white compactor truck clean, almost glistening. His pickup route runs hot and cold with the seasons. But even in the summer, with much less to do, he’s on the job early, braced for a six-hour shift that would break a lesser man’s back. In the winter, the job gets even harder. The Estate Section gets especially busy. Some of the parties have hundreds of guests. They leave behind mountains of refuse. That garbage gets picked up daily, or twice a day when requested. It’s carried ~ by workers who slip, silently, under the porte cocheres. Then it gets whisked twenty miles away to a landfill that the garbage- men call Mount Trashmore. Noel's stretch of the Estate Section runs from the Everglades Club to the southernmost tip of the island. It encompasses Ban- yan Road, Jungle Road, El Bravo Way, and El Brillo Way. His per- formance record is spotless. As far as the Palm Beach PD is concerned, he’s the perfect man for the job. Chief Reiter’s authorized a “trash pull” —a legal way to collect discarded evidence. In this case, evidence culled from Jeffrey Epstein’s garbage. But when the police call him, Noel St. Pierre the beach. A sad thing time to time. His home despots who line their ¢ Many of the refugee: Most of them speak “Eske ou ka ede nou, “Can you help us, pl The cops always nee help out before. But thi: impatient. “This time is differ: special. You don't have keep things to yourself, When he hears what “Tl do it,” he says in The address he’s been ¢ morning, St. Pierre move kitchen window at the women, one of them qui The fourth silhouette The police have give unsavory, but so is the detectives want from hi numbers, along with toc Wear. Anything that cou Special truck on the El E | aside in small trash bags simply assumes that another refugee boat has run aground on q end of every shift. 28 4 HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_019144