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"I want you there, too"

"Jeez…Halloween’s a big night at the club"

Crow said nothing, letting BK think about it

"Yeah, okay, I’ll get so Billy, too" Billy Christmas was BK’s best friend, a fellow bouncer who looked like aThey made a colorful tea as the check clears you don’t owe me shit, brother"

They sorted out a few details and then Crow hung up, feeling ht tea it love box and came out with Eddy "The Chief" Clearwater’s Reservation Blues and slid it into the player, and as the first cut "Winds of Change" began with its ear and headed out of town

He didn’t head hoh, at least not yet Instead he took the side road that led out of town and as soon as he cleared the ja along the undulating black ribbon of A-32 out into the farmlands A few fields were still thick with tall corn, the last of the season; but most had either been harvested down to brown stubble or razed and plowed under to try and halt the advance of the blight Only a few of the roadside faroods for resale A few stayed open with their own products, but they were rare; aoods, staffed by family oodwill

Crow brooded on that as he drove Henry and Terry, the town’s two est hearts One dead, the other dying as the Black Harvest ground along

He passed Tow-Truck Eddie in his wrecker and tooted his horn, but Eddie either didn’t see hitoward town Crow also passed Vic Wingate’s hts he could see two shadowy silhouettes in the cab, but he couldn’t see their faces Vic and some other asshole who apparently possessed the ability to tolerate Vic’s company Crow didn’t toot or wave, but just drove on

When he caer stationed at the entrance No one and nothing left to protect Crow’s mood soured even ravel drive to the house He switched off the lights and engine and sat there in the silence, watching the house There were a few lights on, so to switch theht usually looked so homey, but now they felt so remote, empty of all of their promise of warmth and acceptance The whole house seemed drained, like a battery that’s aly to be frustrating, or a cheat

He got out and walked to the back of his car, opened the trunk, took his Beretta out of a plastic tackle box, shrugged out of his jacket, slipped on the shoulder rig, hung the Beretta in the clamshell holster, and pulled the jacket back on He didn’t ask himself ith all the players off the board, he felt the need to wear the pistol; part of him didn’t want to delve that deeply Not at the moment

He crossed the driveway, then slowed to a stop as solooht--bizarrely--were tendrils, like the waving arrunted as he realized that he was seeing the torn ends of cri in the wind down by the barn In the distance the tape seemed to move in eerie slow motion

"Jeez," he muttered and headed to the house, clio he and Boppin’ Bill, Val, Terry, and Mandy would all sit clustered around the Bone Man, listening to the blues, learning about life far beyond Pine Deep

The front door was locked, but Crow had his own key and let hirandfather clock at the foot of the stairs and theroo room and into the kitchen--Connie’s domain, where she’d happily cooked a thousand meals for the family with all of the charm of a TV housewife,always had to be perfect Though nothing would be any office Henry had used to run the farhtly smaller office The doors to both stood ajar, left open by sohts on, the occupants never to return

Crow headed upstairs, stepping lightly, keeping his back to the wall and his eyes cutting back and forth through the gloom of the second floor At the end of the hallas the master bedroom where Henry and Bess had slept for forty-six years of o, taken by cancer, and ould have thought cancer would be the kinder, gentler way out? Henry had gone doith Ruger’s bullet in his back and had died alone out in the rain