Mayor Blackwater was as serious about the North Woods as any mayor before him. And the Goblin Police were severe. Of this there was no doubt. And yet he wasn’t afraid of Neal getting pulled over. Surely Nash could handle it if they were.

So what was it?

An accident? Was Saul holding the door handle tight because he was afraid Neal was going to drive them into a ditch? The roads were slick, yes, but whatever was bothering Saul, that wasn’t it. There was something heavy, it seemed, inside the car; something bigger than Saul thought he’d agreed to.

“I thought we were hitting the West Fields, Neal,” Harvey suddenly said. Neal had made a right on a dirt road called Blatty. They were headed north now, not west.

Nash looked in the rearview mirror.

“I ever steer you wrong, Harvey?” He was smiling. “Just because we left the party doesn’t mean the party’s over. We’re going to remember this night for a long time.”

He was right, Saul thought. In all their years, all their adventures, Nash had never steered them wrong. He’d shown them three lifetimes of the time of their lives. As unpredictable as he was, Neal Hunter Nash knew right from wrong.

That’s why, when Neal stopped the Jaguar and killed the lights fifteen yards from the south entrance to the North Woods, Saul breathed deeply and thought,

Not anymore.

14

“You’re drunk,” Harvey said. “And out of your mind.”

Neal turned around in his seat. The Jaguar still idled.

“Scared of getting a little lost, Harvey? I’ve taken care of that.”

Neal got out of the car. Harvey and Saul watched as he passed the back window. They heard him open the trunk.

“I’m not going in there,” Saul said.

In his whole life he’d never—not once—considered going inside the North Woods. Like most Gobliners, the admonishment had been branded into his brain:

Chew your food before you swallow it, Saul.

Look both ways before you cross the street, Saul.

And if I ever catch you near those fucking North Woods…

Harvey simply didn’t believe it. It didn’t catch in his mind. It was late as hell. It was raining like crazy. They’d all drunk enough to drown. Now Neal Nash says hey, let’s go into the North Woods? Harvey wasn’t scared. He didn’t have time to feel fear. Maybe in a few seconds he would. But just then he didn’t believe it. Couldn’t. A midnight hunt sounded like an adventure. Entering the North Woods sounded insane. If he was ever going to have done this, it would have been forty years ago with a blonde named Rhonda.

But this? Here? Now?

He had an image of himself lifting the last rock on Earth. Opening the last freaky door.

Neal returned to the front door and tossed rope on the seat.

“See now?” he said. “We won’t get lost.”

Then he threw two green ponchos onto the rope. He put a third one on.