17 NoraAt seven o’clock on Friday morning, Nora parked her Buick opposite a freshly-painted bungalow. Zane Carter’s home in Salem.
She sipped from her cardboard container of coffee and studied Carter’s dwelling. A covered verandah ran along the street side. The one-story house had spotless white siding with shiny lavender trim. Low green shrubs lined up on each side of the wooden steps to the porch. Windows bracketed the door. She couldn’t see any lights on in the front rooms.
A fir in the backyard towered over the roof. Beyond its branches, the cloud-covered sky was fading from black to somber gray, but the huge tree would keep the house in darkness well past sunrise.
In front of the attached single-car garage sat a silver “smart car”. The Oregon license plate sported a Willamette Univ
