Down into Franconia, over the bridge, down the Easton valley. At the Carrick farm a light burned in the parlor window. He went on past the farm for several miles and turned and came back north and drove into the trailhead pull-off and shut down the car. Sat in the batwing dark a long time before the silence of the night settled and came alive around him. The light was still burning at the farmhouse window. And he decided it wasn’t that early after all. He sat waiting.

Then, just like that, like he’d already seen it happen, a little after midnight an automobile came down the road and turned into the farmyard. He watched as it backed around in the yard, dousing its lights as it slid behind the barn. He’d done the same thing himself many times. Still he sat. Only moments passed and the parlor light went out and then there was the bob of a lantern being carried from the house toward the barn. He waited until the lantern blacked out going into the barn. He fired a smoke and smoked it down and then started the Chrysler and pulled onto the road with his headlamps off and drove slow until he came to the farm drive and as he made the turn in hit the gas pedal and reached to the dashboard for the lamp switch and so came in fast and hot to pile up beside the strange car, Jamie already out of his door with the heavy little gun in his hand as he raced around the Chrysler past the other vehicle, a big Dodge touring car with the top down, its engine running also. He kicked open the barn door and came into the pale circle of lantern light.

Carrick and three other men. Heads up. Cases of whiskey in a stack on the barn floor, right out in the open. Waiting.

Jamie had the gun up, jerked the trigger once and remembered to let go. One case in the stack splintered and jetted. Jamie cried, “That’s it, boys. You all hold on now.”

The three strange men turned very slowly toward him. He was outside the circle of light. They moved as if practiced, their hands swept away from their bodies, young birds contemplating arrested flight.

One of them said, “What’s this?”

Carrick said, “It’s him.”

“Jeeter, you fuck.”

Another of the men said, “It’s Pelham?”

“Shut the fuck up! Jeeter, I’m done with you, you fuck.”

The first man said, “Calm down, friend. Mr. Carrick here might be surprised but we been expecting you. Just calm down.”

Jamie advanced halfway to the circle. Swinging the gun in an oval over the men. “You don’t expect shit. Shut up.”

Carrick said, “It’s nothing off you. I been straight with you.”

Jamie made another step and leveled the gun off at the first man. “I’m not hard to find, you wanted to. How long you been expecting me?”