city, everyone living in a rat race. We have plenty of time around
here to meddle in other people's business.' He had a broad, engaging
smile.
The chilling breeze had grown stronger as they talked. Suddenly it
gusted into a whistling wind, flattened the brown grass, whipped
Heather's hair across her face, and drove needles of cold into her.
'Travis,' she said, shaking hands with him again, 'when can you come
for dinner?'
'Well, maybe Sunday a week.'
'A week from Sunday it is,' she said. 'Six o'clock.'
To Toby, she said, 'Come on, peanut, let's get inside.'
'I want to play with Falstaff.'
'You can get to know him in the house,' she insisted. 'It's too cold
out here.'
'He's got fur,' Toby protested. 'It's you I'm worried about,
dummkopf.
You're going to get a frostbitten nose, and then it'll be as black as
Falstaff's.'
Halfway to the house, padding along between Heather and Toby, the dog
stopped and looked back at Travis Potter. The vet made a go-ahead wave
with one hand, and that seemed sufficient permission for Falstaff. He
accompanied them up the steps and into the warm front hall.
Travis Potter had brought a fifty-pound bag of dry dog food with him.
He hefted it out of the back of his Range Rover and put it on the
ground against a rear tire. 'Figured you wouldn't have dog chow on
hand just in case someone happened by with a golden retriever.' He
explained what and how much to feed a dog Falstaff's size.
'What do we owe you?' Jack asked. 'Zip. He didn't cost me. Just
doing a favor for poor Harry.'
'That's nice of you. Thanks. But for the dog food?'
'Don't worry about it. In years to come, Falstaff's going to need his
regular shots, general looking after. When you bring him to me, I'll
soak you plenty.'
Grinning, he slammed the tailgate. They went around to the side of the
Rover farthest from the house, using it as shelter from the worst of
the biting wind.
Travis said, 'Understand Paul told you in private bout Eduardo and his
raccoons. Didn't want to alarm your wife.'
'She doesn't alarm easy.'
'You tell her then?'
'No. Not sure why, either. Except ... we've all got a lot on our
minds already, a year of trouble, a lot of change. Anyway, wasn't much
Paul told me. Just that the coons were behaving oddly, out in broad
daylight, running in circles, and then they just dropped dead.'
'I don't think that was all of it.'
Travis hesitated. He leaned back at an angle against the side of the
Rover bent his knees, slouching a little to get his head down out of
the keening wind. 'I think Eduardo was holding out on me. Those coons
were doing something stranger than what he said.'
'Why would he hold out on you?' - 'Hard to say. He was a sort of
