That night, after the sun had set, Jake went up the hill to Barb’s house. There was no good place to sit and watch, so he stood quietly in the stand of birches across the street, his eyes on the bowed-out second-floor windows. He thought he caught movement a few times, maybe a shadow passing across a curtain, but he couldn’t be sure. But if he stayed here long enough, he knew he’d eventually see Grace either arrive or depart. Either way, he could get to her. He shifted from leg to leg and shook his arms to keep his circulation going. He’d slept a little bit in the back office of the store that day, nodding off in the wooden swivel chair. He dreamt he heard Bill’s voice, slicing through the wind, telling him to wake up, but his eyes were glued shut, and he couldn’t open them. He was worried he was going to fall off the cliff and into the cold water below, but he couldn’t open his eyes, and he couldn’t stop walking forward, feeling for branches that would keep him on the path. Bill’s voice got closer, then farther away, and Jake jerked awake only when his elbow slipped off the arm of the chair.

He’d been standing and watching Barb’s house for less than an hour when the front door opened. He stood as still as possible. The slender figure, too tall for Grace, he thought, walked from the dark house into the light of a streetlamp on the sidewalk. It was Harry, which wasn’t surprising. How long had he been inside? Had they been fucking, or had she been telling him about his father? Probably both. Jake waited a few minutes, then crossed the road to the house. He tried the door but it was locked. Looking back over his shoulder, he pressed the doorbell; two chiming notes sounded from within the house. He pulled the sock from his pocket, and waited, hoping she’d swing the door open freely, expecting to see Harry again.

Instead, she cracked the door open three inches and peered out. Jake pushed against the door with all his strength, catching her unaware, and she stumbled back.

“Hey,” she said, right before he hit her in the jaw with the cosh, dislocating it. She crumpled instantly to the floor like a knocked-out boxer in the ring. Jake stayed standing, his heart tripping in his chest, wondering if the blow had killed her, but her chest was still lifting and falling under her striped shirt.

The door was open behind him, and Jake pushed it almost all the way closed with his foot, then he crouched over Grace McGowan and hit her several times on the side of her head.

Chapter 30

Now