Peter did as he was told, trying not to wince every time a sip burned the back of his throat, and Teddy sat back down. The sheriff rotated the tumbler in his hand, watching the way the golden liquid coiled its way down through the ice. Snow skittered across the windowpane, heavier than before. The net curtains stirred, making the candle’s flame bend and quiver. But they were in the pocket of the conversation now. Peter could feel it. The sheriff had made a good fist of small talk and given him ample time to settle in, but there was no disguising that this was the real reason they’d all gathered here. And as the sheriff downed his whisky in one shot, Peter felt Teddy looking at him. He smiled warmly, but more intently this time, as if all his little ways, pointing at things and naming them, were nothing but a preamble leading up to the moment the three of them would find themselves here.

“Perhaps they were just rounding up the Dead in order to destroy them, Peter,” Teddy offered.

“Perhaps,” said Peter. “Perhaps.” Then, “Thanks Teddy.”

Teddy shrugged. “That’s OK.”

“When I was young,” said the sheriff, “my old man’s neighbour, Duke, owned a dog. Now, Buckle was the sweetest lil thing. You could throw her rag doll a hundred times over and she’d bring it back with her tail still a wagglin’. But one day when I tried to pass Duke a cigar, she jumped up, clean out of the blue and took a bite out of me. The puncture hole in the crook of my arm didn’t even bleed. The dog’s tooth pierced it so neatly that it went straight through the skin to that thick layer of white fat and the cavity below. As clean as a bullet through a mattress, it was. And I just sat there in shock, staring down inside this big ol’ black hole in my arm. But when I looked up, that dog was fraught with panic. Now, there isn’t anything like a dog’s shame. Buckle knew she’d done wrong. But I’d never seen a dog left so utterly confused by its own actions. There she was with her tail between her legs, whimperin’ for Duke not to take a belt to her. All she knew was that her master had been in danger. All she wanted was to protect him. She really didn’t like the wolf that leaped out of her with its teeth all drooling ready to take care of him. She didn’t like it one bit. But it didn’t matter a jot whether she liked that part of herself or not. Out came the wild animal she really was, just the same.