It was a Ford Torino, red with a white stripe along the side like the car Starsky and Hutch used to drive. He had a good idea whose it was—how many like that could there be around town—but to be cautious he flicked his lights to high-beam and eased in behind the Ford and just waited.

Two figures moved inside, silhouetted by his headlights, and then the driver’s door swung open and a stocky figure stepped out brandishing a Louisville Slugger and squinting against the brightness. Bean sighed and hit the dimmer switch and let Ted Cooper’s eyes adjust so he could see the bubble-gum machines on top of the cruiser. Recognition set in gradually; the young man broke into a relieved grin and relaxed his grip on the bat and came sauntering back to the cruiser. He leaned in the window. “Hiya, Charlie,” Ted said in his deep, older-than-seventeen tone. “What’s the poop?”

“What’re you ’uns up to, Teddy?” Bean asked in his usual soft drawl. He reserved his policeman’s clipped severity for speeders and drunks and general assholes.

Cooper shrugged. “Just looking. Doreen hadn’t been out here before. I told her you can’t see anything from the road, but—” He just shook his head, the old “you-know-women” gesture.

“Well, lookee here,” Bean advised. “I’d appreciate it if you and puss would go back to the Tunnel or on home or someplace else. That place is pretty run-down. I want to make sure no one goes running around in there and getting themselves bunged up.”

Ted looked hurt. “We weren’t gonna go inside, Charlie.”

“I know you weren’t, Teddy, but I’d appreciate it if you move on anyway. Okay?”

Cooper thought a moment and then bobbed his head compliantly. “Whatever you say, Charlie. Doreen was starting to get scared anyway.” He strolled back to his car, dragging his bat and yelling, “How about some fishing ’fore it gets too bad” over his shoulder. The deputy waved a reply as the young man gunned the Ford and swung it out onto Sykes Road and back toward town.

Charlie Bean sat there for a moment and stared at the gate. He turned off the lights and the motor and just sat, letting the silence of night flood in around him. He didn’t know what he expected to happen, but whatever it was, it didn’t.