“Stay there. I’ll make out a list for you. Add more beers.”

It takes Eddie Sullivan ten minutes to scrawl out a messy list on the back of a crumpled receipt, and then Danny is back in his rapidly cooling car. He puts the heat on again, cruises slowly back towards civilisation, but this time he keeps his headlights off. No sign of the black Cadillac. He takes the turn for Stephanie’s farm, stops at the gate and jumps out, runs to the intercom. He presses it and waits, standing in clear view so that the camera, wherever it is, can see him. After a few moments, the gate opens, and he drives through.

Stephanie is waiting for him when he pulls up, standing in the warm light of her front door. She’s dressed in jeans, boots and a heavy, oversized sweater. Her hair is pulled back. Danny gets out of the car, jogs up to her.

“Hope you don’t mind your groceries coming a day early,” he says.

“I wouldn’t,” she responds, “if you’d brought them.”

He looks down at his empty arms. “Oh, yeah. I gave them away, actually. To Eddie Sullivan. Sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m sure he’ll enjoy the hygiene products. Come in out of the snow.”

He hurries in and she closes the door and Xena raises her head from where she lies by the crackling fire. When she sees it’s only Danny, she puts her head down and goes back to sleep. On the armchair beside her there’s a blanket tossed to one side, and an open paperback lying on a cushion.

“Everything OK?” Stephanie asks.

“Not really,” says Danny, turning to her. “Two men came into the store looking for you.”

No widening of eyes or dropping of jaw. Stephanie doesn’t go pale or stagger back. She just stands there and nods, waits a moment and then asks, “What did they say?”

“They came in, pretended they didn’t know each other. They had this, this … routine worked out. An overweight man with a ponytail, said his name was Jeremiah Wallow, and an old man who said his name was Gant.”

“Never heard of them,” says Stephanie. “Go on.”

“They came in, and Jeremiah started asking if I sell rat poison or hunting knives or guns. He said something about already having padlocks and chains. Then Gant came over and they started talking about where they were from, and their favourite accents, and they asked if I’d heard any Irish accents recently and if I knew any Irish women in town. I said no.”

“Thank you.”

“They seemed surprised. I waited a bit, then came up here, but they followed me.”

“That’s why you went to Sullivan,” Stephanie says. “You gave him my groceries to throw them off the scent. Clever.”

“If I was clever, I wouldn’t have led them up here in the first place.”