He slowed to a walk at the end of the driveway. The hairs on his neck quivered. He ducked behind a fat tree trunk and listened.

The distant, high pitched whine of a dirt bike or ATV floated on the wind. But Danny heard nothing close by except for tree branches rustling in the breeze. A shiver passed through his muscles. The temperature had dropped while he was running, and his sweat-soaked clothes didn’t help. The house and a hot shower beckoned.

Still, careful had kept him alive in Iraq. He circled the house and approached the back entrance. He unlocked the door and went through the mudroom into the kitchen. His ears strained for sounds of an intruder, but only quiet greeted him.

He flipped the wall switch. Light gleamed off stainless steel. Danny moved from room to room in a methodical search of closets and shadows. Satisfied the house was empty, he took a hot shower and put on fresh clothes. Back in the kitchen, the chill returned. The spring damp had permeated the house, and Danny had depleted his calorie stores on his run. He found a cookie sheet and put half of the pizza in the oven. The other half went into the fridge. In the living room, the woodstove caught his eye. Danny checked the back porch. Seasoned wood was stacked neatly against the far wall.

He piled wood next to the stove, then opened the door and peered inside. Looked simple enough. He’d never used a woodstove, but it didn’t seem much different from a fireplace. He stacked crumpled paper and kindling. Lighting a match, he held it above the pile to check the draw before igniting the paper. When the kindling had caught, he added a couple of small logs.

Satisfied it was burning, he returned to the kitchen and brought his hot pizza into the living room. He sat on the floor in front of the stove and switched on the TV. Several stations ran clips about the missing fisherman and his son, but there were no new developments. No bodies. No clues in their disappearance. If they had drowned, wouldn’t their bodies have been found downstream by now? And why was all their stuff found on the trail to their cabin?

Danny added a larger log to the stove. Between the heat pouring from the iron box and the food in his belly, the chills faded. He moved to the couch and flipped through the sports channels. He settled on baseball and watched the last four innings of the Phillies game. When it was over, he added more logs to the fire, which was burning nicely, and closed the stove door. The fire had taken the moisture from the room. Hopefully by morning the dampness would be banished from the rest of the house as well.