She snorted ruefully. «if I want to look at damage, I can go sit in my living room.»

«Make a little kid happy, then.»

We walked down the stone steps hand in hand. We had just reached the first turn in them when Billy came from the other direction at speed, almost knocking us over.

«Take it easy,» Steff said, frowning a little. Maybe, in her mind, she was seeing him skidding into that deadly nest of live wires instead of the two of us.

«You gotta come see!» Billy panted. «The boathouse is all bashed! There's a dock on the rocks … and trees in the boat cove … Jesus Christ!»

«Billy Drayton!» Steff thundered.

«Sorry, Ma-but you gotta-wow!» He was gone again.

«Having spoken, the doomsayer departs,» I said, and that made Steff giggle again. «Listen, after I cut up those trees across the driveway, I'll go by the Central Maine Power office on Portland Road. Tell them what we got. Okay?»

«Okay,» she said gratefully. «When do you think you can go?»

Except for the big tree-the one with the moldy corset of moss-it would have been an hour's work. With the big one added in, I didn't think the job would be done until eleven or so.

«I'll give you lunch here, then. But you'll have to get some things at the market for me … we're almost out of milk and butter. Also … well, I'll have to make you a list.»

Give a woman a disaster and she turns squirrel. I gave her a hug and nodded. We went on around the house. It didn't take more than a glance to understand why Billy had been a little overwhelmed.

«Lordy,» Steff said in a faint voice.

From where we stood we had enough elevation to be able to see almost a quarter of a mile of shoreline-the Bibber property to our left, our own, and Brent Norton's to our right.

The huge old pine that had guarded our boat cove had been sheared off halfway up.