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Dave smiled. “No problem,” he said, with a touch of jauntiness. “Nothing serious between us.”

Shel thought he detected a reluctance in the answer. “You sure?”

“Absolutely.”

HE delivered Shel to his front door shortly before eleven. The outside lights came on as they pulled into the driveway. First thing they did was check the garage. The Toyota was there, just as Les had said.

Shel sighed. “Now we get to break in.” He looked helplessly at the house. “I keep an extra key at the office, but I have no way of getting in there, either.”

“Why don’t you stay at my place tonight?”

“That doesn’t really work.” He thought he saw movement in one of the windows. A face drawing back. “Wait. What’s that?”

“What’s what?”

But it was gone now. “I thought I saw somebody inside.”

“Are you serious?”

“Right there. In the dining room.”

Dave went over and looked in. “Don’t see anything.”

“Neither do I, now.”

“There’s a light on in there.” The den.

“I had that one on last night.”

“Shel, maybe we should call the police.”

“I feel as if I’m in a rerun. But no. It was probably my imagination.”

“So why don’t you spend the night at my place?”

“Dave, I’d still have to come back here to change for work. I couldn’t go in like this. Well, I could, but it’s more trouble than it would be worth. No, it’s okay. I’m getting good at break-ins.” He was tired. Scared. Literally terrified about the possibilities of a brain tumor. Maybe he was coming apart.

Dave was still looking through the window. “I don’t think you should take any chances. Call nine-one-one.”

“I don’t want to bring the police here on a false alarm.”

“Best to play it safe, Shel.”

“I don’t even have a key. They’d think I’m a mental case.”

He tried the side door. It was, of course, locked. “Thought I might get lucky.”

Dave walked around to the front of the house. Climbed four steps onto the porch. And tried the knob.

It turned, and the door opened.

“That’s odd,” said Shel. He stepped past Dave, went inside, and listened. Air moved through vents.

Dave pushed in behind him.

“Who’s here?” said Shel. Outside somewhere, a dog barked.

He turned on more lights. Looked around. Saw nothing. No sign of a forced entry anywhere. “I’m going upstairs,” he said.

Dave went with him. They looked in the closets and under the beds. Checked all the windows. Everything seemed secure. He saw no indication anything had been taken. “Must have been my imagination.”

His keys were downstairs in the wicker bowl where he customarily dropped them when he came in the door.

“It’s been a long day,” Dave said.

“Yeah.”

“You want me to stay over?”

“No.” Shel was feeling silly. “I’ll be fine.”

“Okay.” Dave started for the door. “I’ll call tomorrow,” he said.

“All right. Good night, champ. And thanks.”

Shel stood at the door while Dave walked out to his car. He got in, gave him a thumbs-up, don’t worry, everything will be fine, and started the engine. Shel remembered he’d left the Q-pod in the backseat. “Wait,” he said.

IT was good to be home. He sat down on the sofa and turned on the TV. He watched it for a while, not really paying attention, still thinking about the lost eight hours and the way Linda had responded on the phone when he’d tried to call in.

Eventually, he wandered into the kitchen, and raided the chocolate chip cookies. It was almost midnight, but he was still not sleepy.

He turned out the lights, all except the lamp on the table beside the sofa, and of course the electric candle at the top of the stairs. The house felt very still. He sat down and picked up the Q-pod. On a whim, he raised the lid and the screen blinked on. It said: ENTER ID.

He poked in Galilei.

Then it asked a question: RETURN?

He stared at it.

RETURN?

Return where? The Allegheny National Forest?

The smart thing would be to leave it alone. Put it on the coffee table and forget it until tomorrow. But when he tried, when he shut the lid and set it down and closed his eyes, he couldn’t get it out of his head.

Return where?

Okay.