Billy did not have the isolation that Lanny enjoyed, but he lived on an acre shrouded by alders and deodar cedars, along a lane with few residences.

He didn't know his neighbors.  He might not have known them even if they had lived closer.  He was grateful for their disinterest.

The original owner of the house and the architect had evidently negotiated each other into a hybrid structure, half bungalow, half upscale cabin.  The lines were those of a bungalow.  The cedar siding, silvered by the weather, belonged on a cabin, as did the front porch with rough-hewn posts supporting the roof.

Unlike most bipolar houses, this one appeared cozy.  Diamond-pane, beveled-glass windows - pure bungalow - looked bejeweled when the lights were on.  In daylight the leaping-deer weather vane on the roof turned with lazy grace even in turbulent scram-bles of wind.

The detached garage, which also contained his woodworking shop, stood behind the house.

After Billy parked the Explorer and closed the big door behind it, as he walked across the backyard toward the house, an owl hooted from its perch on the ridge line of the garage roof.

No other owls answered.  But Billy thought he heard mice squeak, and he could almost feel them shivering in the shrubbery, yearning for the tall grass beyond the yard.

His mind felt swampy, his thoughts muddy.  He paused and took a deep breath, savoring air redolent of the fragrant bark and needles of the deodars.  The astringent scent cleared his head.

Clarity proved undesirable.  He wasn't much of a drinker, but now he wanted a beer and a shot.

The stars looked hard.  They were bright, too, in the cloudless sky, but the feeling he got from them was hardness.

Neither the back steps nor the floorboards of the porch creaked.  He had plenty of time to keep the place in good, tight condition.

After gutting the kitchen, he himself had built the cabinets.  They were cherry wood with a dark stain.

He had laid the tile floor: black-granite squares.  The granite countertops matched the floor.

Clean and simple.  He had intended to do the whole house in that style, but then he had lost his way.