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"And you think one of thenificantly more than a quarter of a million dollars"

"Yes"

"As to how "

"I understand But that guess would be at least a half a ht for a moment "And if their offers turn out to be lower than you expect--"

"That won’t happen But if it does, yes, I’ll still pay you the quarter million"

"And you’ll be here when they come?"

"To protect your interests Yes"

"And what about your own interest, Mr Edwards? You’ll be stuck in Cheyenne for a week, and of course you’ll be entitled to a portion of the price I receive, but do you have a figure infroot on I-25 and drove south for a hundred miles, and if it took youup with the light Saturdaytraffic He held the Toyota steady at four or fiveneither the attention of a highway patrolman nor the scorn of his fellow rammed the GPS with the address fro ladylike voice didn’t have much to say for ot close to Denver, and guided hihway ran into I-70 There he let her talk hih a complicated cloverleaf ("Prepare to keep to the left," followed by a "keep to the left…") that left hi south on Wadsworth Boulevard

He went on doing as instructed, until he made a turn into Otis Drive and she told him, not without a measure of self-satisfaction, "You have arrived"

He hadn’t quite, though Not yet, because the street nuht, conveniently painted on the curb, was 4101, and the number he’d punched into the GPS was 4132 That would put it halfway up the block and on the left-hand side

Where there were a couple of cars parked, two of thehts mounted on their roofs And where all those people were standing

And where the house, on the other hand, was not

"You hear about houses burning to the ground," he told Dot, "but I always thought it was a figure of speech, because they never do They burn, all right, and the property winds up being a total loss, but you still have walls standing"

"But not this time?"

"Burned to the foundation," he said, "which extended round, but that’s it Don’t ask onna ask?"

He and Dot had cell phones that they used only to call each other, and even then only when it was important that no record of the call exist He’d had that phone with him, but waited until he’d driven a mile or so from what used to be 4132 Otis Drive He pulled into a strip mall and parked in front of a furniture store that had closed for the night, if not forever, and he called the one nura

And now he held the phone in his hand and stared at it

"Keller? Where’d you go?"

"You thought I did it," he said

"Well, sure I gave you a name and an address"

"And a picture and a phone number"

"Let’s just stick to the naave theht the address ceased to exist and the name wound up in the hospital"

"And you assumed I was responsible"

"Put yourself in ht?"

"But to burn dohole house?"

"I know, it’s like that essay everybody had to read in high school, burning down the house to roast the pig I forget rote it"

"Charles Lamb"

"Noould you happen to know that, Keller? Don’t tell me, I’ll bet he’s on a stamp Do you suppose there’s an alternate universe where Charles Pigg wrote a famous essay about laht it was pretty heavy-handed for you, not your usual style Collateral dae could have been a lot worse Two kids, and thank God it was Friday"

"Friday?"

"No school on Saturday, so they were both away froht there in Denver and I’ you in from what I skimmed off the Internet Here’s a radical idea Why don’t you pick up a newspaper and call ht the Denver Post from a convenience store clerk who seemed anxious that Keller was about to hold her up, and relieved when he didn’t The story wasn’t hard to find, and he read it through twice and called Dot

"Severe injuries," he said "But he’s expected to live"

"For now," Dot said

"He had fish tanks," he said "Aquariuuess the plural is aquaria"

"Thanks for pointing that out"

"All destroyed, of course His ay when it happened"

"That’d be Joanne"

"Joanne Hudepohl, right She’s described as distraught"