I slept. I don’t know how long. Then a noise. The phone.

It rang a few times before I got to it. When I picked it up, a voice said, “Alex.”

“Hello?”

“Alex, it’s me, Edwin.”

“Edwin? God, what time is it?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “I think it’s about two in die morning.”

“Two in the… for God’s sake, Edwin, what is it?”

“Um, I’ve got a little problem here, Alex.”

“What kind of problem?”

“Alex, I know it’s real late, but is there any chance of you coming out here?”

“Where? Your house?”

“No. I’m in the Soo.”

“What? I just saw you a couple hours ago at the bar.”

“Yeah, I know. I was on my way out here.”

“Edwin, what the hell’s going on?”

I stood there shivering for a long moment, listening to the wind outside and to a distant hum on the phone line. “Alex, please,” he finally said. His voice started to break. “Please come out here. I think he’s dead.”

“Who’s dead? What are you talking about?”

“I really think he’s dead, Alex. I mean, the blood…”

“Edwin, where are you?”

“The blood, Alex.” I could barely hear him. “I’ve never seen so much blood.”

CHAPTER TWO

I stood in a cheap motel room just inside the Soo city limits at 2:30 A.M., looking down at a man who had died that night, a man who had seemingly lost every ounce of blood from his body.

The blood was everywhere. It was bright red against the white bathroom floor, and where it had soaked into the carpet it took on a darker color that was almost black. It was on the walls, in great streaks thick enough to drip all the way down to the floor. And it was all over the man himself. He looked like he had been dipped in it like an Easter egg.