“Gregory,” he said, “it’s me.” He paused. “Who else would be calling? Yeah. Anyway, you have any idea how to kill a Hound of Hell? We’ve got …” He paused, listening for a moment. “I’m sorry, are you going to continue this conversation on your own, or would you like me to contribute? You’re the closest thing we’ve got to an expert, so I’m consulting you. We’ve got one of them. Yes. Don’t worry about that, he’s not going anywhere. He’s … No, I … All I want is … Jesus, do you know how to kill one or not?” Milo listened. “Yeah,” he said. “That seems like a good enough place to start as any. I’ll let you know how it goes.”

He hung up, tossed Kelly’s phone back to her.

“So?” Lucy asked. “What is the expert opinion?”

“The expert opinion is that the Hound is unlikely to survive without a head.”

Kelly frowned. “That’s it?”

“It would seem to be.”

“I could have told you that.”

“Any one of us could have told you that,” said Ortmann.

“But yours would not have been an informed opinion,” Milo said. He walked up to the Hound. “You hear that? We’re going to take your head off. How’s that make you feel?”

The Hound’s expression didn’t change.

“Christ, you’re annoying,” Milo muttered. He held out his hand. “Someone give me a shotgun.”

Kelly gave him hers, and walked outside. Woodbury was moaning in the dirt. A shotgun blast filled the night, and then another. And then another. Three shotgun blasts to obliterate a skull. Another hard head.

Milo and the officers walked out of the barn.

“So?” Kelly asked.

“Turns out Hounds really can’t survive without their heads,” Milo said.

Lucy looked at them both. “So what happens now?”

“Now you go one way and we go another,” said Milo, “and if we see each other in town, we pretend we don’t. Can you live with that?”

Lucy and Ortmann exchanged glances, and Lucy nodded. “Yeah,” she said. “We can.”

Chapter 46

AUSTIN HAD NEVER MET Cole Blancard’s stepdad, and now he was glad of that fact. Oscar Moreno was looking at him like they shared a secret, and totally ignoring Bill, Betty and his own wife.

“What’s that you’re holding?” Oscar Moreno asked. “A key, is it? What a nice key that is.”

“It’s ours, actually,” Betty said. “We just came to retrieve it from your son.”

“Stepson,” said Cole.

Oscar’s eyes flicked from Austin to Cole. “You had it? Really? What are the chances?”

The atmosphere in the house changed. All at once it went from staged politeness to all cards on the table.

Oscar took a step forward, but Bill put a hand to his chest, held him off.

“You know what the key is, don’t you?” Bill asked.