Chapters 5-9 Summary

Western Biological Laboratories is located catty-cornered to Lee's and Flood's. The basement of the low building is both a storeroom for preserved animals and a preparation area, the backyard hold tanks for larger sea animals, upstairs is a crowded office, aquaria, and a laboratory smelling of chemicals, machinery, animals, and the sea. Beside the office is a library filled with papers, books, and phonograph records, and walls lined with reproductions of great masterpieces at eye level. Behind it are a kitchen, toilet, and shower.

Doc is the owner/operator. He is deceptively small, wiry, strong, sometimes fearsome, with a truthful face bearded like Christ or a satyr, the hands of a brain surgeon, and has but one fear: getting his head wet. He helps girls out of and into trouble, can kill anything for need and nothing for pleasure. Over the...