They didn’t try to talk him out of it, maybe because they wanted to be alone; maybe because they really understood. John set out on the two-mile walk at a good pace. It had always been the best way to clear his head, walking through the town he loved so much. The night was full of echoing sounds, insects and water and wind. Most of the houses he passed were darkened, quiet, watchful. Here and there curtains fluttered at an open window. A radio news report rough with static came to him from a screened porch.

He crossed into campus and heard the sound of voices in a good-natured argument, and at that moment he remembered for the first time in hours that tomorrow was the Fourth of July Jubilee, which started off with a 5K run. A run he and Caroline were supposed to take part in, together.

He thought of taking another route, but the workers had seen him already. Half the Ogilvie Police Department was still here, putting the finishing touches on the security and first-aid pavilion. Spotlights made it look like a stage populated by a troupe of very tired actors.

“John!” called Louanne Porter.

“If it isn’t the chief of police,” John said. “Louanne. Bob, Mary Beth, Lee, Howard, Win.” It was bad enough running into a crowd of old friends at this moment, but he really didn’t need Win Walker telling people he had been wandering around after dark, not with Caroline gone off on a retreat and the rumors already getting started. He put Patty-Cake Walker’s voice out of his head and steadied his resolve.

“What are you up to?” Louanne asked him.

“Just getting some fresh air. You got the whole police department out here?”

“No rest for the wicked,” Louanne said. “John, you been back in town a couple weeks at least and I don’t recall seeing you down at the Hound Dog even once. Caroline got a tight hold on you, does she?”

“No tighter than you’ve got on Jimmy,” said Mary Beth dryly, and Louanne let out a squawk of laughter and swung out, halfheartedly, to smack at the woman who was both her sister-in-law and her community-relations officer.

“You’ll see him there on Thursday,” said Win Walker. He had been sitting on the ground and he stood up, pulling his cap off his head to scratch at his scalp. “The Rose girls’ men have got one hell of a bachelor party planned, is what I hear.”

John felt the smile freeze on his face, and hoped nobody took any note of the fact that he was standing there like a rabbit looking at a truck barreling toward it.

“Oh, Lord,” said Louanne. “I’ll have to put a few extra men on duty that night.”

“Alert the emergency room.”

“Call up the National Guard.”