ABSTRACT
Jeremy Blake stared at his computer screen, sweating despite the soft breath of summer coming through the open window next to him. The groggy just-woke-up feeling that had led his hand toward the coffee mug on the desk ran out of him like a tide, and the mug stayed untouched. The birds racketed in the trees outside and Bobo sniffed around the bushes at the back of the yard, marking them at random on his first patrol of the day. A fresh smell of dew on grass he'd mowed late yesterday afternoon tickled through the screen, mixing with the sharper smell of coffee and the scent of the breadmaker, set last night to have a loaf of honey whole wheat warm and ready by the time the family woke up. He knows Peter. A coworker at Jacqueline's bank for a few years; he moved to Boston for another job awhile ago.
