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“Hello, Sally, James. How are you this morning, baby?”

As she spoke, she handed the cone to the young woman, who immediately began licking and moaning in ecstasy.

“I’m fine,” Sally said.

“That will be two dollars and sixty cents,” Amabel said.

“Oh, it’s wonderful,” the young woman said. She alternately dug in her wallet and ate the ice cream.

Quinlan smiled at her. “It is excellent ice cream. Why don’t you just keep eating and I’ll treat you?”

“Taking ice cream from a stranger is okay,” Sally said. “Besides, I know him. He’s harmless.”

Quinlan paid Amabel. Nothing else was said until the young woman left the shop.

“There hasn’t been another call,” Amabel said. “Either from Thelma or from your father.”

“He knows that I’ve left your house,” Sally said thoughtfully. “That’s good. I don’t want you in any danger.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Sally. There’s no danger for me.”

“There was for Laura Strather and Doc Spiver,” Quinlan said. “You be careful, Amabel. Sally and I are going exploring. Thelma told us about this shack up the hill behind Doc Spiver’s house. We’re going to check it out.”

“Watch out for snakes,” Amabel called after them.

Which kind, Quinlan wondered.

Once they were rounding the corner to Doc Spiver’s house, Sally said, “Why did you tell Amabel where we were going?”

“Seeding,” he said. “Watch your step, Sally. You’re not all that steady on your ankle just yet.” He held back the stiff, gnarly branch of a yew tree. There was a barren hill behind the house, and tucked into a shallow recess was a small shack.

“What do you mean, seeding?”

“I don’t like the fact that your dear auntie has treated you like you’re so high-strung no one should trust what you say. I told her that just to see if perhaps something might happen. Then if it does—”

“Amabel would never hurt me, never.”

He looked down at her and then at the shack. “Is that what you believed about your husband when you married him?”

He didn’t wait for her to answer him, just pushed open the door. It was surprisingly solid. “Watch your head,” he said over his shoulder as he stooped down and walked into the dim single room.

“Yuck,” Sally said. “This is pretty bad, James.”

“Yeah, I’d say so.” He didn’t say anything else, just began to look around as he imagined the sheriff had done only days before. He found nothing. The small space was empty. There were no windows. It would be pitch black when the door was closed. Just plain nothing. A modicum of hope, that was all he’d had, but still, he was more than a modicum disappointed. “I’d say that if Laura Strather was kept prisoner here, the guy holding her was very thorough cleaning up. There’s nothing, Sally, not a trace of anything. Well, hell.”

“He’s not hiding in here, either,” she said. “And that’s what we’re really doing here, isn’t it?”

“Both, really. I have a feeling that your father wouldn’t lower himself to stay in this place. There aren’t even any free bathrobes.”

* * *

That afternoon they ate lunch at the Hinterlands. This week Zeke was serving Spam burgers and variations on meat loaf.

They both ordered Zeke’s original-recipe meat loaf.

“The smells make me salivate,” Quinlan said, inhaling enthusiastically. “Zeke puts garlic in his mashed potatoes. Breathe deeply enough and no vampire will come near you.”

Sally was toying with the curved slice of carrot in her salad. “I like garlic.”

“Tell me about that night, Sally.”

She’d picked up the carrot and was chewing on it. She dropped it. Then she picked it up again and slowly began eating it. “All right,” she said finally. She smiled at him. “I might as well trust you. If you’re going to betray me, then I might as well hang it up. The cops are right. I was there that night. But they’re wrong about everything else. I don’t remember a thing, James, not a blessed thing.”

Well, hell, he thought, but he knew she was telling him the truth. “Do you think someone struck you?”

“No, I don’t think so. I’ve thought and thought about it and