Working! Pub Friday [or at least it was when I wrote this] and I’m working. The book is weird, but good. And all I’m writing on first pass is dialogue and basic stage directions.

S: And the sea, the sea is something else. It wants you back, always just over that horizon. It’s why the guys who work the boats are always so angry. You notice that? Every brawl I ever broke up was fellers off the boats. I like the trees. There’s a world in there, and when you want to, and it’s close enough, you can just walk into it.

G: She got off the ferry, and she had a bag with her. And no one saw where she went.

S: One day the fog will come down and never leave, and that’ll be that. Boats or no.

G: So where did Riley go?

S: Probably wanted to get away from the water.

G: Same as Arlene.

S: She should’ve had a coat. We never found a coat.

G: Why was Eric going to shoot you, Chief?

S: I explained things to him he didn’t want to hear.

G: Worth killing for?

S: He didn’t kill me.

I once explained this story as being “something close to a cozy”. And it is, but not. Very much not.