Chapter 24: Lights Out

They reached Shore Road at ten to midnight, in four cars with the lights off.

Cormac's utility truck was already parked at the corner.

Nico was in the cab, in a reflective vest three sizes too big.

"He bit my lineman," Cormac said through the window. "Then he told me he knew where Finn hides. I'm not a strong man."

"Nico," Maura said.

"I'm coming," said Nico. "He hides when the lights go out."

She looked at Vincent over the boy's head.

Vincent nodded once, very slowly.

"In the van with Cormac until I say. Then you point, and you don't move."

"Yes, Uncle Vincent."

At the end of the road the white house sat quiet under the flagpole.

Two men were crouched at the foot of its porch with red cans.

The smell of gasoline carried across the dark yard.

"Carlo's driver," Vincent said, very low. "He made the call."

"Can they hear us?"

"Not for long."

The old captain's two sons went across the lawn on their stomachs.

There was a short muffled struggle, then silence, then a hand lifted twice from the grass.

The lineman's voice came over the radio.

"Pole's ready. Say when."

Maura looked at the house.

Somewhere in there, behind that glass wall and a woman in a cardigan, her son was asleep.

"Now," Vincent said.

Every light on Shore Road went out.

The dark was so complete that she lost her own hands.

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