I picked up the Death card and placed it in front of Dessusdelit. The room had grown tense, and Dessusdelit sat frozen for a moment, studying Death. Then, with a sudden release of breath, she pushed her chair back and stood up. Her eyes were wide and distant, as though she were stoned.

“Let’s get some light in here,” LuEllen said suddenly. She pulled a shade, and daylight cut through the gloom. “Boy, I’ve never seen anything like this.” She looked down at her hand. “The crystal has stopped.”

Dessusdelit leaned over and peered at it, nodded.

“I need a drink,” I said. “Miz Dessusdelit?”

“No, no, thank you. I think I need to go home and lie down

“

She looked one last time at the dark knight on the white horse. When she was gone, LuEllen looked at me and grinned.

“That was strong,” she said.

“Yeah. I hope I don’t get in trouble with the tarot gods for fuckin’ with the cards.” She frowned, and I grinned at her. “No sweat. Let’s get out on the river.”

The animal control compound was three-quarters of a mile south of the marina, at the far end of the town’s small industrial district. Going downriver, we passed the tall white cylinders of a grain elevator with a barge dock, a series of warehouses surrounded by chain-link fences, a lumberyard, and then a stretch of empty riverbank, overgrown with brush. The animal control complex was the last sign of life before the river turned and slid out of sight. From the water we could just see the tops of the buildings. A couple of dogs were yapping, but there was no other sound except the boat motor and the water cutting around the bow.

“Goddamn it,” I said. “I thought we could see in there.”

“Why don’t we go on down, tie off, and climb that little hill?” LuEllen asked, pointing across the water. A short, steep hill poked up just beyond the corrugated metal roofs. “We could take the glasses up with us, and we’d be looking right down on it.”

“All right. Let’s see if we can find a place to tie off,” I said. We drifted down until we were a quarter mile below the complex, where the river began to turn away from the town. The near bank had been reinforced with concrete mats and made a decent landing. We tossed some foam bumpers over the side to protect the boat’s hull, climbed the revetment, and tied off on a handy tree. A faint, twisting game trail rambled along the top of the levee, winding back toward town. We followed it toward the base of the hill, LuEllen in the lead.

Twenty yards down the levee she did a half hop and jump, blurted, “Jesus H. Christ,” and took three hasty steps back toward me. “Big fuckin’ snake,” she said.

“Probably a garter snake,” I said. “Sunning itself.”