“Finally I finished my written plan for the renovations.

“I printed out the requisite copies. Then I drew a clean design for a sumptuous granite bathroom to be built onto the back of the round Hermitage, occupying no more width than one window, and, copying this four times by means of my fax machine, I finished my official plans.

“At this point Goblin spoke: ‘Evil, Quinn,’ he said. ‘Quinn Goblin will die in any direction.’

“I turned and looked at him and saw in his face a cold hard expression much as I’d often seen in him for the last few days. There was none of the old love or warmth or playfulness.

“ ‘How do you mean Quinn Goblin will die?’ I asked. ‘We won’t let that happen, old buddy. We won’t. I’m pledging that to you. Can you understand my words? They come from my heart.’

“ ‘They all want you,’ he replied in his monotone. ‘Mona wants you. Rebecca wants you. Aunt Queen wants you. Nash wants you. The stranger wants you. Any direction and Quinn Goblin dies.’

“ ‘We’ll never be separated,’ I said confidentially. ‘Perhaps they simply don’t know how strong the bond is between us. But we know.’

“His expression remained cold, and then very slowly he dissolved.

“I had the distinct impression that he had dissolved of his own accord, not because he had to, and that he wanted me to know this, that he had withdrawn, and indeed I did feel the sting of it.

“ ‘It’s true what I told you,’ I said. ‘Only you can make us die, only you can divide us, and that would be by leaving me.’

“Whether he was near or far, whether he had heard what I said, I had no clue. And I was too madly excited to care about him.

“I hurried downstairs to place a copy of my scheme with Aunt Queen, who received the work agreeably enough, and then I went out to find Allen’s mailbox in the shed, and I put a copy in there for him. Allen was the head of the craftsmen, as I’ve indicated. He’d see that the work was done. I put a copy in Clem’s box as a courtesy, as Clem was actually the boss, and then I headed back to the house.

“As I crossed the back terrace a wave of giddiness came over me. And when I look back on that moment—when I remember the starlight and the warm air, and the light streaming out of the kitchen door to greet me, when I remember the feeling of charged excitement, I remember how very alive I felt, how in love with Mona and how foolishly excited I was by the mysterious stranger, and how I held myself to be invincible even in the face of strong evidence that I was not.