“Yes.”

He stepped back from the vehicle. “It’s time.”

He watched her back out of the garage before going back into the house. Once inside, he put his laptop on the table and walked to the stairs. Standing at the top, he whispered into the phone, “You’re doing fine, Sandy. Just stay calm and this will soon be over.”

Then he muted the phone, pulled the stocking cap off his head, and walked down the steps to the basement, where Pip sat watching a cartoon.

The man gave the boy a smile. “Hello, Pip.”

CHAPTER 6

Max arrived at the electric company before the office opened, having had no bath in a week. He had put off bathing because he’d have had to haul water in from the hand pump out front and heat half to a boil on his woodstove—a lot of work.

As he waited, he gave thought to the questions he might face inside. Last week, the woman behind the window, a matronly lady of sixty years or better, had seemed confused when Max asked that she shut off the power to the cabin.

“Closing down for the season?” she had asked.

“No, just doing without.”

She looked at Max as if there was a punch line coming. “Doing without… electricity?”

“That’s right.”

“And you’re still going to live there?”

“I am,” Max replied.

“Without electricity?”

“Yes,” he said. “I plan to live deliberately.”

The woman had looked at Max like he was speaking nonsense—obviously not a fan of Thoreau. “And so… you want me to shut off your power.”

Max closed his eyes, a slow blink to hide his exasperation. “Yes, please.”

He had lasted only a week, and now he imagined her grinning with smug satisfaction as he asked to have his power restored. He wanted to tell her that he didn’t lack the fortitude to make it without electricity. He had no problem hauling water in from the pump. He didn’t mind the chill of night as the fire died down. He could make do with cooking his meals over the fire pit. What he lacked was the ability to kill a goddamned rabbit without losing his shit.

If Max could have, he would have called the electric company, but he’d terminated his data plan shortly after moving to the cabin, a measure he took to cut ties with the one person who had cared enough to try to call him after he disappeared, his former partner in Homicide, Niki Vang.

She had been at his side as he suffered through the memory of his dead wife, turning a blind eye as Max pieced together the puzzle that led him to her killer. She had kept his secret, telling no one about what he had been up to in the days before his sudden resignation. She had been a true friend, and Max repaid her by mailing his badge and gun to her for her to turn in to the chief. His resignation had been a deal that he made with himself just before he pushed Mikhail through the hole. Giving up his badge was a price he would pay for exacting his revenge.