“Fifteen minutes to get there,” he muttered, pushing the button on his wristwatch that lit up the digital display. “Forty-five minutes inside, maybe, and another fifteen or twenty to her house. That would get them home around eleven o’clock.” That seemed early to him, but of course they had been kids; it could have been the time she was due home. He couldn’t remember. Come to think of it, they had time to talk in the car because they got home early. So that fit.
As soon as the Mercury had pulled away, he walked quickly across the lawn and started down the sidewalk. It was a fairly long walk to her house, but he could get there before they did, after their snack, if he kept up a brisk pace.
“And it’s a safer time and a nice neighborhood,” he said quietly to himself. The sound of his own v
