“I take it Ben hasn’t gotten here yet.” I heard the half question, half statement from my wife through the screen door behind me.

“Nope,” I replied and took another lazy draw from my cigar. “But you know how Ben is. If he says six in the evening, he really means eight.”

“Ever since his promotion, we’re lucky to see him at all,” she expressed. “Are Allison and Ben Junior coming?”

“I doubt it. He said something about Al taking the little guy out shopping for clothes.”

“Well…” She pushed the screen door open a bit to allow one of our cats to exit the confines of the house. “I’m going to go upstairs and pay some bills. Let me know when he gets here. I don’t want to miss this little celebration. Remember, I’m the one who’s pregnant.”

“I doubt that you’ll let me forget it,” I answered, looking back at her with a grin. “I’ll call you when he shows up.”

She smiled in return and left me to my cigar and quiet contemplation of the tree-lined street, as well as my attempts to dull the secret, foreboding sensation with a tumbler of single malt scotch on the rocks. Ten minutes short of an hour later, not only had I still not managed to shake the feeling, but it grew even stronger as a tired-looking Chevrolet van rolled into my driveway. The engine knocked and complained as the driver switched it off, and then it sputtered into silence. After a moment, the door opened with a labored screech, and the occupant extricated himself from the seat.

Ben Storm was a Native American, six-foot-six with jet-black hair and the finely angular features one associated with the boilerplate portrayal of feather-adorned natives from TV Westerns. He kept himself in excellent physical condition and made a very imposing figure both in and out of uniform. When he had been a street cop, I often joked that he was the last person I would want to see coming down a dark alley at me if I had done something wrong. He always made it a point to bet that he would be the first person I would want to see coming down that alley were I in trouble. I never hesitated to agree.