Footsteps sounded. Boots, Rhyme deduced from the sound. With hard leather heels. From the interval between the steps it had to be a tall man. He hoped it would be Jim Bell and it was.

Breathing carefully into the sip-and-puff controller, Rhyme turned away from the wall.

“Lincoln,” the sheriff asked. “What’s up? Nathan said it was urgent.”

“Come on in. Close the door. But first—is anybody in the hall?”

Bell gave a faint smile at this intrigue and looked. “Empty.”

Rhyme reflected that the man’s cousin, Roland, would have tacked on a Southernism of some sort. “Quiet as a church on payday” was one that he’d heard the northern Bell use from time to time.

The sheriff swung the door shut then walked to the table, leaned against it, crossed his arms. Rhyme turned slightly and continued to study the map of the area. “Our map doesn’t go far enough north and east to show the Dismal Swamp Canal, does it?”

“The canal? No, it doesn’t.”

Rhyme asked, “You know much about it?”

“Not really,” Bell said deferentially. He’d known Rhyme for only a short while but must’ve sensed when to play straight man.

“I’ve been doing a little research,” Rhyme said, nodding at the phone. “The Dismal Swamp Canal’s part of the Intracoastal Waterway. You know you can take a boat all the way from Norfolk, Virginia, down to Miami and not have to sail on open sea?”

“Sure. Everybody in Carolina knows about the Intracoastal. I’ve never been on it. I’m not much of a boater. I got seasick watching Titanic.”

“Took twelve years to dig the canal. It’s twenty-two miles long. Dug completely by hand. Amazing, don’t you think? … Relax, Jim. This’s going someplace. I promise you. Look at that line up there, the one between Tanner’s Corner and the Paquenoke River. G-11 to G-10 on the map.”

“You mean, our canal. The Blackwater Canal?”

“Right. Now, a boat could sail up that to the Paquo then to the Great Dismal and—”

The approaching footsteps weren’t half as loud as Bell’s had been, with the door being shut, and there was little warning before it swung open. Rhyme stopped speaking.

Mason Germain stood in the doorway. He glanced at Rhyme then at his boss and said, “Wondered where you’d got to, Jim. We got to make a call to Elizabeth City. Captain Dexter has some questions ’bout what happened at the ’shiners’ cabin.”

“Just having a chat with Lincoln. We were talking about—”

But Rhyme interrupted him quickly. “Say, Mason, I wonder if you could give us a few minutes alone here.”

Mason glanced from one to the other. He nodded slowly. “They’re in a mind to talk to you pretty soon, Jim.” He left before Bell could respond.

“Is he gone?” Rhyme asked.