There was my truck, sitting inside an open bay, looking like a broken-down club boxer who has fought his last match. I parked and went inside. The young man running the place said the glass had already been ordered but that it would probably be the next day before it came in. “It was a special order from Atlanta,” he made a point of telling me several times over.

I asked if Danny Ray was around and was told that he had not returned yet, but maybe I could find him down at the docks where he often worked. I didn’t bother to reply that I lived there myself. I left some cash to cover the cost of the new glass and then headed home.

As I pulled into the parking lot I noticed that the light on that end of the lot was out, and I remarked to myself how rapidly the days shorten this time of year and how much denser the obscurity of the nights seem to be. When I was at the top of the stairs that lead down from the boardwalk to the dock itself, I spied a lone figure, sitting slump-shouldered on an upturned bucket at the end of the dock.

He was leaning head down, with his forearms resting on his knees as if asleep. His face was turned slightly away and was hidden by the hood of his rain jacket. Something about his presence made my hackles rise. I put my hand into my coat pocket where it automatically found the pistol that nestled there. I let my finger rest lightly outside the trigger guard but put my thumb on the safety and stepped forward to find out who the visitor was.

The man must have felt the dock sway underneath us. He instantly looked up and, seeing me, called my name.

“Kennesaw.”

It was Parker Wells. He stood and stepped forward, extending a hand.

“I was beginning to wonder if you’d return today. I’ve been sitting here staring at the water until I must have dozed off,” he said.

“Parker? What’s going on? You’ve been looking for me?” I asked, a bit puzzled by his presence.

“Yeah,” he said, his long head nodding seriously on his equally long neck. “Miss Cyriah sent me.”

“Oh,” I replied. “Well, come on inside. You can tell me there. Besides, I need a drink and I’ll feel better if you’ll have one with me.”

“I’d be delighted,” he replied, a smile lighting his face.