What’s left of Lettie’s furniture is piled neatly in the backyard, covered in tarps. From the shapes I’m guessing the three bookshelves, the chair and coffee table from the front room and another couple of chairs, a few boxes and a bed. There are some of those plastic storage containers piled up outside the back door. Lettie’s sitting on one of the porch chairs. I look around for more of those white-suit-wearing people but she seems to be on her own.

She waves at me.

“What are you doing?”

“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m sitting on a chair.”

I roll my eyes. “But why are you out here?”

She looks around her. “Looks pretty good, doesn’t it?”

I look at her backyard. It does. The jungle’s been whipper-snipped to within an inch of its life; big wet clumps of grass lie in piles across the yard. There’s even a birdbath the size of a small child in there. The smell of freshly massacred green is overwhelming. That and the fumes coming from her house. I’m glad of it as I hang propped by my forearms over the fence. Between that and the blood and bone, there’s not much room for other smells.

“What’s with the outdoor furniture?”

“The house is having plastic surgery. They’ve scrubbed it down, melted off the wallpaper, sealed it with one coat of paint and are about to add another. Latex paint! I’ve got rubber walls now. And they’ve even got a floor sander that vacuums as it sands. No dust. Painting and sanding at the same time.” She shakes her head. “They reckon they’ll have the first layer of sealant on the floor before they leave this evening.”

“That’s a lot.”

“Yep. They’ve been at it all day. Using some pretty heavy-duty chemicals. Takes a while for the fumes to clear. So I could be out here all night.”

“Oh.” I’m interrupted by a white-suited mask-face peering out the back door. I drop back down and leave them to it.

Splints snuffles at my feet. He didn’t get a walk yesterday. I sniff. I don’t want to get that close to him. I also don’t want to hang out the back of the house any longer than I have to. “I’m not bathing you again.” He shoves his nose into my crotch. “Right. You asked for it.”