On a day that a storm seems to be brewing, Mike, with Pax at his side, is at Verna's Café, an isolated combination roadside eatery/general store/bus stop, where he is to meet a "Mr. Smith", the alias for a man who stole a jade chess set from a private collection in return for the ransom Mike has brought and has now hidden in one of the establishment's lockers. Instead, a disparate group of people convene at the café, most waiting for the bus which may or may not be coming because of the storm, which threatens to become the next hurricane to hit the Gulf coast. They include: Verna, the proprietress; Dunstan, a soldier just completed a muster duty; Flecker, a traveling encyclopedia salesman; Aiello, a seemingly reflective seventh grade teacher; and fighting married couple Edward and Liz Royce. They are eventually joined by Haines, whom they believe to be a fisherman because he's wearing a slicker. One of these people could possibly be Mike's "Mr. Smith." As the storm rolls through, the phone lines go down, and the power goes off for a few seconds. An event at the café changes the nature of Mike's stay there from a ransom drop to a murder investigation. Could the two be related?
—Huggo