Part Two: The Jock Scott

By the end of June, he had tied over four hundred flies and had not left the house...

The UPS driver, a cheerful young man named Kendrick who wore his shorts at a length that suggested he had not yet accepted that he would be doing this job for very long, became Webb’s most frequent visitor. Kendrick was accustomed to leaving packages on the porch, but he began to notice that they were never picked up for hours and then sometimes not until the next day, at which point a new package would be waiting. He knocked.

“You all right in there?”

“I’m fine.”

“You sure? Because I’ve got six boxes this week and I’ve never seen you in your yard.”

“I’m working on a project.”

“Must be some project,” Kendrick said, and moved on. He mentioned Webb’s situation to Pudge, who was trimming his hedges across the street, and Pudge nodded with the gravity of a man who had been tracking the case.