Enter, Night

Parr, truth be told, so no girl that landed him would ever be immune from the jealousy. Besides, she chided herself, it was all a long time ago. And it wasn’t this girl’s fault, anyway.

Anne noted that Finn had brightened since the news that Morgan Parr was downstairs waiting for him. Until Sadie came home, or was found, she’d be happy for anything that would take her son’s mind off his lost dog.

“She’s very pretty,” Anne said. “She looks like her dad. I knew him in school.”

“I guess,” Finn said, blushing. “Her dad’s dead, anyway.”

Anne blanched. “Jack’s dead? When? How?”

“I don’t know,” Finn said. “Don’t ask her about it, OK? I don’t think she wants to talk about that stuff. At least not yet.”

“Well, don’t just sit there,” Anne said, recovering. “Put some cold water on your face and come downstairs and greet your guest like a gentleman. We don’t want her running back and telling Mrs. Parr she visited a barnyard.”

Finn rolled his eyes at his mother. “She’s not like that,” he said, suddenly protective of Morgan. “Mom, please just- I’ll be right down, OK?”

He went down the hallway into the bathroom and closed the door. Anne heard the water running and the sound of splashing as Finn washed his face.

She went downstairs to tell Morgan that Finn would be down directly, and to offer her a soft drink while she waited. When Morgan smiled and thanked her politely, she felt even worse for her churlish thoughts about Christina Monroe and Jack Parr.

What an awful, awful day, she thought. First Sadie, then that horrible hockey bag, now this news.

Anne decided that another rum and coke-a strong one this time- might hasten sleep and bring it to a close a little sooner, which would be just what the doctor ordered.

“Your parents are nice,” Morgan said as she and Finn sat in the basement drinking Cokes. “Especially your mother. She asked me how I liked the town. I told her I liked it a lot, but it was hard to get used to.”

She glanced around as she spoke. On the fireplace mantle there was a framed photograph of a much younger Finn on the edge of a lake with his arms around a wet black Labrador retriever shaking water from its fur. Curling trophies, likely his father’s, flanked the photograph. Morgan took in the fake wood panelling and the wet bar, and the hockey and travel posters on the wall, thinking how nice it was not to be at Parr House where everything seemed to be a brittle antique, including her grandmother-to be in someplace normal for the first time since leaving Toronto.

“They’re OK,” Finn said, shrugging. Then, thinking better of it, he said, “No, they’re great. My mom, especially, yeah. I like them. Do you like your mom?” He mentally kicked himself for asking such a stupid question. “I mean, you probably do, right? Everyone likes their mom.”

Morgan laughed, but not unkindly. “Yeah, I love my mom. My uncle Jeremy, on the other hand, probably doesn’t love his-my grandmother is a bit hard to take sometimes. She’s a bit mean. She wasn’t really happy about you and I becoming friends, I guess.”

Finn sounded indignant. “How come? What’s wrong with me?”

“It isn’t you,” Morgan said. “It’s anyone from here. I think she’d like to think of me as this princess or something, and that I shouldn’t be associating with the peasants, which is how she sees the people who live here.”

“Well, she owns the whole town,” Finn said scornfully. “Of course she’d think like that. How come she let you come here, then?”

“She doesn’t know I’m here-and I can’t stay long.” Morgan looked at him more closely. Finn’s eyes were red and swollen. He looked as though he had been crying for hours. “Where were you today?” she asked gently. “I didn’t see you at lunchtime, or after school. Is everything OK?”

“My dog ran away. Her name is Sadie. I woke up this morning and she wasn’t in the yard,” he said simply. “She’s lost. I cut school early to go look for her. I went to Bradley Lake and looked all over, but I didn’t find her.”

“Oh, God,” Morgan said. “I’m so sorry, Finn. I didn’t know. Why didn’t you come get me when you got home? I would have helped you look.”

“It’s OK,” he said. “I didn’t want to get you into trouble. I almost got into trouble myself for cutting school but… well, something else happened this afternoon.”

“What do you mean?”

Finn looked towards the stairs leading to the living room where his parents were watching television. “If I tell you a secret, will you swear to keep it?”

Morgan shrugged. “Sure, I guess so. What is it?”

“No, don’t say ‘I guess so,’” he said urgently. “You have to swear.”

“OK, I swear.” She forced herself to keep from smiling. “What is it?”

Then he told her about the bag of knives and hammers he’d found at Spirit Rock.

Billy was pulling into the parking lot of the Nugget when he saw the flashing lights of the police cruiser coming towards him from the opposite direction. No siren, he thought mirthlessly. I guess they don’t think I’m a high-speed chase risk. Then, Enough is enough with this harassment by these goddamn yokel cops. The cruiser pulled sharply into the spot next to Billy’s allocated parking spot, the light still flashing.

He parked his Ford XL smartly and opened the door. The two cops- both of them this time, which surprised him-were already waiting for him beside their cruiser. The younger one actually had his flashlight out, shining it at the truck.

Billy put his hand up over his face, blocking the light. “Sergeant Thomson, would you please ask your colleague to put the light away? I’m not going anywhere and, as you can plainly see, I’m me. There’s no need for it.”

Thomson turned to Elliot and said, “Constable McKitrick, I don’t think we need that light on Professor Lightning.” Then back to Billy, “I apologize, sir.”

If Thomson’s intent in calling Billy “sir” and apologizing had been to reassure him, it had the opposite effect. In Billy’s experience, the only thing more ominous than a redneck cop being verbally abusive was a redneck cop being ostentatiously polite.

“What is it this time, Sergeant Thomson?” Billy said calmly. “What are you charging me with? Driving a Ford? Being an Indian driving a Ford? Staying in a motel in your town? Or maybe having dinner at O’Toole’s, which is where I have been all evening? It surely wasn’t speeding-and that was a paragon of parking I just did.”

The younger cop-McKitrick-didn’t smile, but Thomson did, however wanly. “Dr. Lightning, I wonder if you’d be so good as to accompany us to the police station for a word?”

“We’re having ‘a word’ right now, Sergeant Thomson,” Billy snapped. “Why do we need to go to the police station to do it? I’ve done nothing wrong. There’s no reason for me to go to the police station with you. As I explained to Constable McKitrick earlier today, I’m getting very tired of this harassment, and am prepared to take action to make it stop.”

“There’s been a… development,” Thomson said. “It relates to your story about your father’s death, as well as some other things. I’d really appreciate it if you’d come along with us and help us clear some things up. It won’t take any time at all, I’m sure. But we’d like to talk with you.”

“I think not,” Billy said coolly. “I think I’ll decline.”

“Sir,” Thomson said, this time with an edge, “if you don’t come along with us of your own volition, I’m prepared to arrest you. I don’t want to, but I will.”

“Arrest me? On what charge?”

“Please, Dr. Lightning,” Thomson said. “Trust me, I’d rather just speak with you down at the station. But I will take whatever measures I need to ensure that happens.”

“What are you going to do,” Billy demanded, “make something up? Some trumped-up charge?”

Thomson merely shrugged. “Would you please come along with us, Dr. Lightning?”

“You’re both going to hear from my lawyer about this,” Billy said in a cold fury. “The minute I get to a