James PATTERSON they were nothing like the demons he’d heard about in church. the beach. A sad thing Noel had never forgotten the way those kids looked. The way time to time. His lnene they'd turned into old men and old women. They were like zom- despots who line their p bies trapped in children’s bodies. And now, in America, Noel's Many of the refugee: been given a chance to help other kids. Maceo then peal That’s what the police have told him, at least. : *Hske ou Kaederion Noel is a sanitation worker. Still strong at fifty, and lucky ‘Can you-heliae oI enough to have found his way to Palm Beach, he gets in to work : The: cope always a before anyone else and keeps his white compactor truck clean, : help out before. But thi almost glistening. His pickup route runs hot and cold with the impatient. | seasons. But even in the summer, with much less to do, he’s on ; “This time is differ the job early, braced for a six-hour shift that would break a lesser : Pre cials You donithaye man’s back. In the winter, the job gets even harder. The Estate : Dees dings to yourself Section gets especially busy. Some of the parties have hundreds j Ri sabi pees ak of guests. They leave behind mountains of refuse. That garbage : “Tl do it,” he says im gets picked up daily, or twice a day when requested. It’s carried j ~ by workers who slip, silently, under the porte cocheres. Then it 4 gets whisked twenty miles away to a landfill that the garbage- ; 4 Rieaddress he’s bean 4 men call Mount Trashmore. a PrninaySt. Pierre man | Noel's stretch of the am aeaion runs from the Everglades . 3 ji Be hen windéw atthe | Club to the southernmost tip of the island. It encompasses Ban- -: q women, one of them qui | yan Road, Jungle Road, El Bravo Way, and El Brillo Way. His per- a he fouctlisilhioustte formance record is spotless. As far as the Palm Beach PD is | _ The police have giv concerned, he’s the perfect man for the job. unsavory, but so is the | 4 detectives want from hi , . . 3 numbers, alo