found a pencil and an old envelope in the dining room and came back. She slid her chair around alongside mine, pressing gently against my shoulder and watching me as I drew the map.
“Here’s town,” I said. “The highway runs east along here, and then turns south, toward the end of the lake. You know where that store is down there, don’t you? The highway goes across the south end of the lake on the big earth dam, and just beyond the east end of the dam there’s a store and a boat place and a honky-tonk beer joint.” She nodded.
“Well, about two miles beyond that bunch of buildings a secondary road takes off to the left, going north. This runs up the other side of the lake. It isn’t much of a road, but there’s not much travel on it, which is good for our purpose.” I paused, trying to remember landmarks. It had been a long time since I’d been over there. The railroad was over there, running parallel and probably a quarter mile beyond the secondary road. I’d want to leave the boat at some place that would indicate Shevlin had headed for the water tank to catch a freight. There’s a small creek, I thought, along there somewhere. And then I remembered.
“Look, Dinah. It would be about fifteen miles after you make the turn off the highway onto that country road. You hit a stand of big pines very close to the road on both sides, a half mile or more of them before they taper off into second-growth stuff again. Then there’s a gravel pit with an old loading platform, off to the right, where I’ve marked it. Then, just about a half mile beyond the gravel pit, you’ll cross a small concrete bridge. It won’t be the first one, for there are some more below it, but I can’t remember whether it’s the third or fourth. Anyway, that’s the reason I’ve put these other landmarks on here, so you’ll know you have the right one. I’ll be waiting just beyond the bridge. Blink your lights as you go over it. Think you’ve got it?”
“Yes. It’s easy. Now, what time?”
“How about eight o’clock? It’ll be dark by then.” She put her—hand on my arm and smiled. “Wonderful. Can I bring anything for you, any clothes from here that I could put in the car now? Naturally, you won’t be able to take anything extra in the morning.”
I shook my head. “No. I won’t take a thing. Just the clothes I’ll have on. It wouldn’t look right otherwise.”
“Yes. That’s right.” She got up from the table. “Well, I’ve got to go and let you get some sleep.”
I walked out to the car with her and opened the door. She stood very close to me for a moment, looking up, then she said, “Good night, Jack.” I pretended not to notice the warmth in her voice.
“Good night,” I said, and watched her back out of the driveway.
I took three of Louise’s sleeping pills, and still it was a long time before I got to sleep. Doris was there, just beyond me in the darkness, and when I would start for her Shevlin would be there too, putting his hand up to his chest and looking toward me as he started to fall to the floor.
The pills made me oversleep a little. I got up and shaved and dressed and then looked around the house, not knowing why I did it, for it didn’t mean anything at all. I’ll never see it again, I thought, or Louise, and it doesn’t mean a thing. I stood for a moment in the front door, then closed it and went on down the walk. Four years were just overnight in a hotel room. I had breakfast at Barone’s and got to the office about half past nine. Buford was already there, with Hurd, and Lorraine was looking for something in the files. Buford nodded abstractedly, and then Lorraine put the paper on his desk. I went over and sat down and started looking at the morning newspaper.
“Say, Jack,” Buford said, turning around in his chair, “you ought to know your way around that lake pretty well, the number of times you’ve been up there fishing. You like to take a trip up there today?”
“Sure,” I kidded. “Can I take my fishing tackle?”
“Not today.” He sobered. “I just got a tip this man is up there near the end of the lake