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"She try to poke you?" Fry asked, not looking up

Eustace sat behind his desk "How’d you know?"

"They say she does that" He turned a page "Think she killed hiot there?"

Fry held it up to show hiood one," Eustace said

The door swung open and a nized hiround on the other side of the river

"Sheriff Deputy" He nodded at each of them in turn

"Help you, Bart?"

He cleared his throat nervously "It’s my wife I can’t find her anywhere"

It was nine AM By noon, Eustace had heard the same story fourteen times

39

It was midafternoon by the time Caleb reached town on the buckboard The place seemed totally dead--no people anywhere In two hours on the road, he hadn’t seen a single soul

The door of the lass Nothing, noto the quiet Where the hell was everybody? Why would George close up in the middle of the day? He walked around to the alley The back door stood ajar The frame was splintered; the door had been forced

He returned to the buckboard for his rifle

He nudged the door open with the tip of the barrel and htly packed--sacks of feed piled high, coils of fencing, spools of chain and rope--leaving only a narrow corridor through which to pass

"George?" he called "George, are you in here?"

He felt and heard crunching underfoot One of the bags of feed had been torn open As he knelt to look, he heard a high-pitched clicking above his head He lurched back, swinging the barrel of the rifle upward

It was a raccoon The ani on top of the pile It lifted onto its hind legs, rubbing its two front paws together, and gave him a look of absolute innocence Thatto do with me, pal

"Go on, beat it" Caleb poked the barrel of the rifle forward "Get your ass out of here before I make you into a hat"

The raccoon scampered down the pile and out the door Caleb took a breath to calh the beaded curtain into the store The lockbox where George kept the day’s receipts sat beneath the counter in its usual spot He ht of stairs behind the counter led to the second floor--presu quarters