But not for long was a way off. There were delays with the proofs, and then there were delays with the galleys (Todd had no idea what the difference was) and then there was a delay with the cover, and then the galleys looked like they’d been proofread by the Marx Brothers and nothing seemed to go right and Todd just completely freaked at seeing the whole damn book typeset like it was real, which of course it was, it was extremely real.

Either way, it was all too freaking much for Todd and he was seriously thinking of taking a long weekend or maybe a long week or just getting very, very drunk when one morning there was a knock at his front door and he opened it and there was Behm, coughing into his fist like it was a microphone and he was testing it.

“Mr. Behm,” said Todd, once Behm had finished coughing. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

Behm looked up, and Todd saw that he was, for the first time since they had met, uncertain.

“I need to speak to you,” Behm said. “Can I come in?”

“I guess so,” said Todd, but Behm was already inside the house.

Behm stood in the kitchen and pulled from his jacket—which seemed, Todd noted, even more threadbare than last time—another yellow envelope.

“You found her?” said Todd. “I wondered where Janis had got to.”

“This isn’t about Janis,” said Behm, and scattered three prints on the table. Todd looked at them. One was taken outside a gas station at night. One was of an undistinguished stretch of grass and trees that Todd recognized as being part of a local park. And the third was taken through the window of a diner on the way to the highway.

“Landscape shots,” said Todd. “Branching out into regular photography. You thinking of going straight?”

Behm didn’t even bother to pretend to smile.

“Nobody in those pictures, right?” he said. “Thought so.”

“Wait a minute,” said Todd. “You came here to ask me if there were any—what’s going on?”

“Those are just three examples,” said Behm. “I must have twenty more back at the office.”

“Examples of what?” said Todd.

“I’ve been surveilling your wife for weeks now,” said Behm. “And her routine is unchanging and unvaried. So I thought that I would try to find out a little more about her lady friend.”

Maybe it was the phrase lady friend that chilled Todd. He felt a strong and cold unease as he waited for Behm to continue.

“I started following her,” said Behm. “And that was a little trickier than following Janis, let me tell you.”

“Hardly surprising,” said Todd. “She may have something to lose by being found out. Maybe she’s got a family at home.”

“Thank you, the great detective,” said Behm. “That’s what I thought. Except she doesn’t appear to have a home.”