He moved cautiously around the front of the house until he reached the first lit widow. Edging forward, he saw a doorway to the front hall, then a side wall with a low sofa surmounted by comical prints of fishermen, then the far wall, all windows for the view of the lake, and then, close to this window, a floor lamp with a yellow shade and, next to it, a man in a red tartan chair with wooden arms, reading a book.
Parker looked in at him in one-quarter profile, seeing a wrinkled but bony face and neck, silver-framed eyeglasses, a nearly bald head with some remaining thin white hair, a prominent pale ear, hard jawline, red-and- black flannel shirt. The hands holding the hardcover book were gnarled and big-knuckled.
There was no one else in the room. There was no indication of anybody else around. Parker moved away from the light, listened to the night, heard nothing he didn't expect. He walked past the lit windows to the front door, knocked on it, and took the pistol from his pocket.
When the man opened the door, Parker saw he had to be in his seventies at least, tall but stooped, thinner than he used to be. He looked at Parker with only mild curiosity, surprised that anyone could come around at such an hour, then saw the pistol, just there, not pointed at him or anywhere in particular, and he gave a startled jerk, moving back a pace, saying, 'Good God!' Then he blinked at Parker, realized he was being neither shot nor directly threatened, and said, 'Well— I suppose you're coming in.'
Parker, staying outside the doorway, said, 'Who else is here?'
'My wife,' the man said, nodding toward the other end of the house. 'She's asleep.'
Parker turned and called, not loud, 'Lloyd.' Then he stepped into the house, saying to the man, 'Leave it open.'
'Whatever you say.'
Parker stepped into the living room, saw no weapons anywhere, saw the book now closed with a marker in it on the chair the man had been sitting in, and saw the television set on the other side of the room, next to the kitchen doorway, facing the sofa. There were two boxes on top of it, one for cable and one for something else. The set would be visible from where the man sat in the chair.
Lloyd came in, looking curiously at the older man. 'What's happening?'
'Close the door,' Parker said. 'He says he has a wife asleep here and nobody else. Get her up.'
'I wish you wouldn't,' the man said. He was reasonable, neither afraid nor belligerent.
Parker looked at him, waiting.
The man said, 'She has diabetes, among other things. She needs a regular pattern in her life.'
'So she watches by day and you watch by night, is that it?'
The man smiled, as though at himself, and shook his head. 'Of course that's who you are,' he said. 'Yes, that's what we do. But you can leave her out of it.'
'I don't think so.' Parker turned to Lloyd, pointing at the extra box on top of the television set. 'Is that it?'
'It should be,' Lloyd said. He went over to look at the box without touching it. 'Yes, this is it.'
Parker turned back to the man. 'You want to get your wife yourself? Lloyd will go with you.'
'It really isn't necessary,' the man said. 'I'll tell you what I know, and she knows less than I do. I'm prepared to cooperate, but I'd like you to bend just a little here. My wife's a sound sleeper, she'll never know you were even in the house.'
Parker considered. Having him calm and talking was better, if possible. He said, 'Is there a phone in the bedroom?'
'Yes.'
To Lloyd, Parker said, 'Go get it. If she wakes up, bring her along. If not, leave her there.'
'Thank you,' the man said, and to Lloyd, 'It's the second door on the left.'
Lloyd went through the hallway, and Parker said, 'Any other phones in the house, besides that one?' Pointing at the phone on the round table to the left of where the man had been reading.
'In the kitchen, that's all.'
Lloyd came back with a phone in his hand. 'Snoring,' he said, and put the phone down.
The man said, 'That embarrasses her, but she can't stop. It's made it easier for me to be a night owl.'
Parker said to Lloyd, 'Did you look around?'
'No other people,' Lloyd said, 'and no other phones.'
'Good.' To the man, Parker said, 'You're waiting for something to show on the television.'
'That's right.'
'What?'
'A living room,' the man said. 'It's in a house about a quarter mile down that way.'
'What are you supposed to do when it comes on?'
'That depends,' the man said, 'If it's the cleaning lady, which it has been once, then I merely push the off button on the box and it shuts itself off. If it's you, on the other hand—'
Parker said, 'They showed you a picture of me?'
'No, a verbal description,' the man said, 'but accurate. A big man, hard but shaggy, with brown flat hair. They particularly mentioned the long arms and large hands, with prominent veins.'
