Levy looked and sounded vague, except about moving. He had their new address and phone number written down for Hawkins and he watched while Hawkins put it in his wallet; then he went back to staring at the far wall over the heads of the other men.

Hawkins left the living room and went looking for Rachel. She wasn’t in the kitchen. The bedroom door was closed and he knocked on it, then opened it with his heart pounding, but it was empty. He went back down the hall to Adam’s room. The pictures were off the walls, the books were packed, and the aquarium was gone. There was nothing left but the bed, surrounded by packing boxes. He shut the door quickly and stood in front of it for a moment, then he went back through the apartment. When he got to the little entry hall, he turned around for one last look. Jacob was still staring at the wall. He was pale, his eyes were half-­closed. He looked like he was in a trance, but Hawkins saw him blink. The other men’s heads were bowed, and the scene was oddly silent and motionless. It bothered him for some reason. He went out the front door and, without thinking, he let it slam, but he knew none of them would even look up to see who’d left.

He wrote Levy’s new address in his book when he got to the office. He tried to work, but he kept thinking of the men in the circle. They’d looked like they were waiting for someone, except Levy, who’d looked like he was having a vision.