cow?”
“Good-bye, Arthur,” Manfred said hopefully.
“Just to keep you on an even keel, okay, I’ll go,” Arthur said, with a smile that said he was placating Manfred. Manfred had no trouble reading that.
“Okay, see you tomorrow,” Manfred said. “Straight to your car, now.” He tried to keep the anxiety out of his voice. He opened his door. If Manfred could have lifted Arthur and thrown him into the front seat, he would have. As soon as the sheriff was out of the front door, Manfred closed it to a crack and watched as Arthur walked to the crumbling driveway. He unlocked the car with a key fob as he walked, so he could climb in and start the motor as soon as he got there. Manfred could hear the little thunk that said the car doors had locked automatically.
Blowing out a sigh of relief, Manfred shut his own door and locked it. He drew the curtains closed.
He went into the kitchen to heat up his Mexican supper at about the same moment Joe was landing behind the Antique Gallery and Nail Salon. Outside it grew as dark as it was going to get on this night of the glowing moon.
Manfred didn’t look out again, not even an hour later when he heard a sort of bellow. He thought it came from nearby, perhaps from across the road, and he thought it sounded like a terrified animal. But he only looked up from his book for a moment and then went back to reading with his jaw set. Much later, in the middle of the night, he woke. Despite the window air-conditioning in the front room, which served to cool the whole house, he had thrown off his sheet. He sat up to find the end so he could draw it back up. As he groped around the bed, he heard something pass by outside his house, something big, something that made an odd coughing noise. He closed his eyes and prayed, and the thing passed by. He sank back down on the bed, pulling the percale sheet up over him like a child.
Whatever had prowled around his house seemed to be going in the direction of the pawnshop.
—
In her basement apartment, with its windows right by the ground, Olivia watched the paws walk by outside. Her lights were all off. She felt safer that way.
—
Above the Antique Gallery and Nail Salon, Joe and Chuy looked out the front windows. For the most part, they were silent. Joe’s ankle was hurting, but it was bandaged and he’d taken some pain relievers. He was as comfortable as he was going to be that night. They’d pulled up chairs and a small table for their wineglasses, and Chuy had gotten Joe a footstool to prop his ankle on.
They sat there through the night. They were keeping guard, in their own way. So they saw everything that happened.
“At least one more night, maybe two,” Chuy said, as the darkness began to lighten. “You think we can do this two more nights?”
Joe said, “I think we have to. With the boy being so young.” He shook his head. “Honey, you can sleep if you want to. Doesn’t need but one of us. My ankle would keep me up, anyway.”
“I’m not going to leave you watching by yourself,” Chuy said.
Joe didn’t answer out loud, but he reached over to take Chuy’s hand.
—
Above the pawnshop, Bobo Winthrop tried to sleep, with little success. He was worried about so many things. Foremost in his mind was his concern about the pawnshop not being open at night during Lemuel’s absence. Sometimes Olivia was able and willing to do the shift; sometimes she wasn’t. When a business wasn’t open regular hours, people tended to stop coming. And the night customers were the most profitable. What would happen if he couldn’t keep his business afloat?
He turned over to try a new position, but his mind refused to turn off.
Lemuel and Olivia could find somewhere else to live, he supposed. Perhaps Lemuel would want to buy the business back from him. But Bobo didn’t want to leave Midnight. He liked the town, liked the area, liked Texas. There were so many good things about living here: Fiji being across the road, so he could see her often. Manfred next door. Joe and Chuy down the street. And the Home Cookin Restaurant, where he’d passed some very contented hours eating and talking.
He hadn’t realized the previous few months had been a Golden Age.
Now the