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about
you.”
    The joviality vanished from Lenny’s
face, replaced with an immediate look of concern that added twenty
years to him. “What about me?”
    “ I don’t know. He just asked
if you were here. I told him you were and he said to tell you to
stay put until he arrives.”
    “ Why?”
    “ I told you, I don’t know.
That’s all he said and then he hung up. I’m sure it’s nothing.
Maybe Joanne’s car broke down and she’s going to be late home or
something.”
    Lenny slowly shook his head. “A
sheriff wouldn’t come looking for me just to tell me that. He could
have told me that over the phone. No, something’s
happened.”
    “ Aw c’mon, don’t go thinking
like that,” Jake said. “Look out the window, there’s nothing but
white. Going to be all sorts of traffic problems tonight. I’m sure
that’s all it is. When you left, was Joanne heading
somewhere?”
    “ Yeah,” Lenny said, eyes
glassy. “To the store, but that’s only a few blocks away. She
wouldn’t have taken the car.”
    “ She might have, to be out
of the cold.”
    “ Jake, I see what you’re
trying to do, but she didn’t drive. Whatever Baxter is coming here
to tell me, it isn’t about a goddamn breakdown.”
    Jake couldn’t argue further because he
knew nothing he’d say would sound believable, even to himself.
Lenny was right. When Sheriff Baxter made house calls, it was to
ask questions or deliver bad news, and Jake felt certain his own
tragedy had attuned him to bad tidings.
    And his nerves were singing
now.
    Mind racing, he almost managed to
block out the sound coming from the walls. But then his guard
faltered and his heart skipped a beat, allowing that unmistakable
ticking sound an undistracted audience.
    Tick-tick-tick.
    It ticks for
thee.
    No ,
he thought, braced by panic. Maybe not.
Maybe not me at all .
    Lenny rose, tugging Jake from his
fearful musings and quieting the deathwatch in the
walls.
    “ What are you
doing?”
    Lenny’s nerves didn’t seem to be
faring much better. A faint trembling made the glass wobble as he
finished his brandy in one gulp and started towards the
hall.
    “ Lenny? What are you doing?”
Jake repeated, rising to follow.
    “ Going home. If something
has happened to Joanne, I’m not waiting on a cop to break the news.
Might be too late by the time Baxter gets his fat ass through that
snow anyway.”
    “ Wait,” Jake said and
hurried after him into the dark hallway, his knees aflame with
pain. In the few seconds it took to reach him, Leroy had already
donned his coat and hat and was turning to the door.
    “ Damn it, wait!” Jake said
again, and the near-hysteria in his voice made his friend pause,
one hand on the knob.
    “ Something’s happened,”
Lenny whispered, face grave.
    I don’t want to be here by
myself , Jake almost blurted, immediately
shamed by his selfishness. Instead he reached for his coat. “You
wanted me to start getting out more,” he said, “so if you’re not
going to wait, I’m coming with you.”
    He couldn’t believe he had said it and
only when it was out did he realize how truly small and unfriendly
his world had become. In here was loneliness and despair, all
measured by the ticking of the deathwatch. Out there was the snow,
the loathsome blanket of putrescent mold beneath which Julia slept
forever.
    Lenny looked about to argue, then
sagged and yanked open the front door.
    The hostile night roared into their
faces as they stepped out into the cold.
     
    * * *
     
    This is insane.
    Jake bowed his head against the wet
white kisses the sky drove into their faces. Already his skin felt
numb and sore, his nose wet and dripping, knees raging with the
agony of battling through the ankle-deep drifts that hunkered
against the light like protective mothers.
    The buildings on both sides of Brennan
Street stood like monoliths, fringed with snow and twinkling with
the ice that bejeweled them. In some, dim yellow light hugged the
frosted windows; in others