distance between me and my new housemates. When I found myself hoping that this Faith person would be a little more normal than the other two, I reined in my thoughts. I was just tired and new to the scene, more than a little suggestible and in need of fresh air. Researchers and academics of every stripe have their quirks, and everything would seem a little less enigmatic after I’d had a couple of hours to settle in.
I set out briskly to chase the gloom from my mind and the cold from my veins. Following the road as it snaked away from the house, I moved over the hillocks on the slope on which the house stood, which eventually led out to a flatter stretch, delineated by a small brook. The wind wasn’t as bad now as when I’d been driving, and I could just detect the signs of life beginning to peep out of the dead-looking ground. Little pale green shoots reached up through the carpet of muddy brown leaves and small buds appeared on the trees and bushes around me. A little gazebo stood in the middle of an open area some way off the road and I was stopped in my tracks by the view when I climbed up into it. The hill on which the estate was settled dropped away into a plain and I could see the countryside for miles to the east, the rest of the Shrewsbury property with the thin line of the fence in the distance and Monroe’s lights nestled in the western Massachusetts hills farther south. The sense of exposure I felt took me unawares; although anyone from out of state might not have noticed the difference, it was unusual for me, accustomed to the crowded seacoast, to see such thinly inhabited expanses to the western horizon.
Farther down the road, I found the library and security offices just beyond the next turn, nested snugly in a little dell surrounded by more of the imposing trees. The library clearly postdated the original house, as the Tudor-revival style in the United States came into vogue closer to the turn of the twentieth century, but the stone-clad walls and low gabled roof line complemented the older house. I remembered from somewhere that the annex had been originally used as a retreat and guesthouse. The building was two stories, with a one-story ell in back, but the low roof and spread-out design made it blend into the surrounding landscape. I decided that it was pretty but nothing special, unusual only for what I knew was locked up inside: one of the best collections of Americana anywhere. I turned around and headed back.
I was halfway home again, really feeling beat now, when I heard the engine of a large car behind me. When I turned and saw that it was a security vehicle, an SUV, I moved a little closer to the side of the road so the driver could get by. The driver made no move to continue, so I waved him on. Nothing. I resumed walking and still he followed me, at a snail’s pace, not passing, not falling back. If he wanted something, he should have rolled his window down and asked, rather than trailing me like this. I let him follow for another fifteen steps before I got worried about what was going on, and suddenly cut across his path so that he had to stop again.
I went over to the driver’s side window. I couldn’t see in because the glass was tinted, but I waited there anyway. Aggressive, for me, but I am learning that sometimes aggression is a good thing.
The window lowered with the smooth whirr of a hidden motor and I found myself staring into the smirking face of a crew-cut blond security guard. This wasn’t the middle-aged guy I’d met down front—Constantino—this guy was a twenty-something and pure grade-A beefcake. He didn’t say anything, just let his car heater warm the great outdoors for a moment or two longer.
“Is there some particular reason you’re following me?” I said.
The guard flushed. “Can I see your I.D.?”
With his jaw clenched as hard as that, I wasn’t really surprised that he couldn’t get a “please” past his teeth. A little vein pulsed near his shorn temple.
“I haven’t got one yet, I just moved in.” I showed him my house key with the fancy Shrewsbury key chain. “Can I see yours? I don’t think that real security should be harassing people this