We’d walked over to my car while Torrance talked, and I’d pulled out my keys. Now I stopped with my fingers on the car door handle. “Dug up the backyard?” I echoed incredulously. Come to think of it, that wasn’t so surprising. I thought about it for a moment. Okay, something that could be kept in a bole in the ground as well as hidden in a house.

“I filled the holes back in,” Torrance went on, “and Marcia’s been keeping a special lookout since she’s home during the day.”

I told Torrance someone had entered the house, and he expressed the expected astonishment and disgust. He hadn’t seen the broken window when he’d last mowed the backyard two days before, he told me.

“I do thank you,” I said again. “You’ve done so much.”

“No, no,” he protested quickly. “We were kind of wondering if you were going to put the house on the market, or live in it yourself…Jane was our neighbor for so long, we kind of worry about breaking in a new one!”

“I haven’t made up my mind,” I said, and left it at that, which seemed to stump Torrance Rideout.

“Well, see, we rent out that room over our garage,” he explained, “and we have for a good long while. This area is not exactly zoned for rental units, but Jane never minded and our neighbor on the other side, Macon Turner, runs the paper, you know him? Macon never has cared. But new people in Jane’s house, well, we didn’t know…”

“I’ll tell you the minute I make up my mind,” I said in as agreeable a way as I could.

“Well, well. We appreciate it, and if you need anything, just come ask me or Marcia. I’m out of town off and on most weeks, selling office supplies believe it or not, but then I’m home every weekend and some afternoons, and, like I said, Marcia’s home and she’d love to help if she could.”

“Thank you for offering,” I said. “And I’m sure I’ll be talking to you soon. Thanks for all you’ve done with the yard.”