“It’s getting pretty cold out there, Evan,” I said.

“I won’t be long,” he said, shutting the door softly behind him.

I waited twenty minutes after the front door latched before I took my coat back down from the hall tree.

By seven o’clock the streetlights around the town square were glowing yellow through the damp autumn mist.

I sat down on the low wooden bench right behind the stone fountain in the middle of the square.

The thick boxwood hedge behind the bench threw a deep shadow across the wooden slats, keeping me out of sight of the main path.