* * *Leaving Harry's shop later, Neal considered tracking down Big Jim. He got the car and drove to the highway, but when he got to it he turned south, toward home. He needed to be alone.
He parked at the end of the new road and sat in the silence for fully half an hour. At last, needing to move, to do something, he got out and walked home.
Looking up at it from the yard, the old house had never seemed so empty. He didn't feel like going inside. Instead he walked the perimeter of his property, following the CSS fence on the downhill and north sides. At one point he sat down on the ground, thinking he ought to cry since supposedly it would make him feel better, but no tears came. He got up and trudged back to the house.
He rummaged around in the kitchen cabinets and located p
