Three hours of it: Blah, blah, blah…

By the time he got out of the lawyer's office it was five o'clock, too late to get to Bluestem while the courthouse was open. Walking along with Lannie McCoy, the prosecutor in the case, they'd decided that the wise course would be to get sandwiches and beer at Cat's Cradle, a downtown bar.

They did that, and some cops showed up and that all turned into an enjoyable nachos, cheeseburger, and beer snack. One of the cops was very good-looking, and at one juncture, had rested her hand on Virgil's thigh; perfect, if her wedding ring hadn't shown up so well in the bar light.

A sad country song.

HE LEFT the Cradle at six-thirty, went home, dumped a load of laundry in the washing machine. With the washer rattling in the background, he sat on a rocking chair in his bedroom and finished sewing a torn seam on a photography vest. Sat in a cone of light from his bedside reading lamp, sewing, and wondering about the married cop who'd come on to him; thinking a bit about loyalty and its implications, and the trouble it could bring you.

Feeling a little lonely. He liked women, and it had been some time since the last one.

When he finished with the vest, he hung it in his gear closet-guns, bows, fishing and photography equipment-took a shotgun and two boxes of shells out of his gun safe, laid them beside an empty duffel bag. He half filled the duffel bag with underwear, socks, and T-shirts, three pairs of jeans. Still waiting for the washer to quit, he went out on the Internet, looking for a letter from a magazine publisher. A letter was supposed to be waiting for him, but was not.

He pulled up a half-finished article on bow hunting for wild turkeys, dinked with it until the washer finished the spin cycle, then closed down the computer, threw the wet clothes in the dryer, and took a nap. The clock woke him. After a shower, as he was brushing his teeth, he heard the dryer stop running. His timing was exquisite.