Cambridge, far too close to the bright lights of Boston. The Dolamores’ house was almost completely dark except for some faint light coming through the curtains of the downstairs living room. She was just about to turn away when movement from the street caught her eye, and she turned her head to see a man walking down the Dolamores’ driveway. A motion sensor light went on above the front door as the man passed, and Hen could tell it was Matthew. She expected him to enter the house, but instead he got into his car. Hen checked her watch. It was almost midnight. Where could he be going? And where was he coming from on foot? The words follow him jumped into Hen’s head. He was clearly up to something, and she might be able to find out what it was. Without thinking, she grabbed her own set of car keys from the hook by the front door and went outside, speed walking toward the Volkswagen as Matthew’s taillights receded down Sycamore Street toward the center of town.
She thought she’d lost him but then spotted brake lights, a vehicle turning into the parking lot of the Owl’s Head. Hen slowed down. Instead of following him, she backed into a driveway across the road, immediately killing the engine and dousing her lights. It was a risk, but less of a risk, she thought, than following Matthew into the parking lot. And from there she had a good view. Matthew, after parking, had turned off his lights, and she waited for him to emerge from his car, but he didn’t. There was activity in front of the bar, even though the lights that illuminated the Owl’s Head sign had been turned off. She could see a small cluster of people standing around near the entrance, but she was too far to see what they really looked like. It did seem, however, that the few remaining people outside of the tavern might be members of the band. That was confirmed when she saw a drum kit being loaded into the back of a van. But Hen was most interested in Matthew, now sitting in his car on the outskirts of the lot. It seemed as though he had purposefully chosen the darkest spot in the lot. It was clear that he was there to watch someone, just as Hen was doing. But who? And where had he been coming from before he got his car, when he’d been on foot? It did occur to her that maybe he was coming from the Owl’s Head—it wasn’t far—and that he’d returned in his car so that he could follow someone.
The van pulled out of the parking lot, then a woman got into a car by herself and left. A lanky figure with what looked like a large beard got into a long and boxy car. Matthew stayed put. She could just make out the outline of his head in the darkened car. The lights in the tavern dimmed, and Hen watched as a woman with long hair came out the front door and walked toward the long car, opened the passenger-side door, and got in. The car pulled out of the lot and headed west. Ten seconds passed, and Matthew’s headlights went on. He turned out of the parking lot, following them.
Hen started her own car, glad to get the heater working again, and began to follow Matthew. His taillights—slanted circles—looked like widely spaced eyes. They were on Acton Road, heading toward Middleham, a neighboring town that was mostly farmhouses and pine forests. Hen tried to hang back, but Matthew was going slow. Still, would he possibly notice he was being followed, especially since he was following someone himself? Following two people, actually, since Hen had seen the woman get in the passenger seat. She decided to risk it, almost laughing out loud at the absurdity of the situation, tailing her neighbor in the middle of the night. But now that she was actually doing this, she badly wanted to know what was going on. She started to speculate, then stopped herself and concentrated on her driving, on keeping an eye on Matthew’s taillights. They turned off onto a winding side street that cut through wooded areas, so dark that Hen’s headlights seemed to barely cut through the blackness. She started to worry that this particular road—she hadn’t spotted the name—was too isolated and that Matthew really would realize he was being followed. She also