"Shish!" Joe put his fat fingers on my lips. "Don't talk." Moonlight in the entrance hall was just enough for me to see that he looked exactly like I left him in broad daylight. Which means he wasn't attacked or injured, just mildly paranoid.

"Did anybody see you coming here?"

"I don't think so…"

"Rachel, don't think too much!" he whispered and cleared his throat. "It's my job." He stood plastered on the wall, peeking out the door window in complete silence for a very long time before saying, "Okay, now, it's time."

He opened the door, let me outside, and ushered me into his car soundlessly. With his bulky body, he moved in the dark like a cat, reminding me he served some years as a Navy Seal, doing who knows what, who knows where.

Getting into the driver's seat, he didn't put a seatbelt on, just started the car and pulled off his driveway onto the street. There was something eerie in the way we were moving through the neighborhood, and it took me some time to realize he hadn't turned his headlights on. Plus, the car had tinted windows.

"What's going on?" I whispered. "What do you want to do?"

"I'll tell you in a minute," he whispered back at me. "Just do what I say."

After a couple of miles, he wheeled to the opposite side of the street and parked without turning off the engine. I got out, obedient to his command, while Joe was shifting his big body inside the car, trying to get out. Not having enough room, he put his left foot on the ground and pressed the car horn with his elbow. His honking woke up the whole neighborhood. Dogs barked, and the light went on and off in the next house up the street.

The house on the hill across the lawn from us remained dark and silent. Joe exhaled like a whale and proceeded to the car's rear. He popped the trunk up, pulled out an oddly shaped bag, and handed it to me. It was slippery. He, himself, got a heavy object that looked like a white box. He carried the box to the lawn and left it there. I put the slippery bag next to it. Shaking and sweating, I was trying to kill the thought that those objects were the remains of some annoying material witness who crossed my new boss.

Joe trotted back to his car, got another boxy white thing, and dumped it next to the first one.

"Get in the car," he commanded, though it took him more than a second to get inside and start the engine. He wheeled back to the right side of the road, turned on the headlights, and lit his cigarette.

"What did we just do?" I squeaked.

"Take this, you need it." He gave me his cigarette.

I don't smoke, but neither do I dump things on people's front lawns; so, the cigarette felt like the right thing to do.

"How was it?" my boss asked.

"Terrifying!"

"Yeah… Especially when I tooted my horn in the middle of the operation. Everything because it was so secretive."

"What was it?"

"My old toilet tank."

My cigarette flew out when I coughed. "Your toilet tank? You woke me up in the middle of the night to dump your toilet tank on other people's property?"

"You have to understand, I was too embarrassed to put them in front of my office. These rich people have so many kids, it's natural for them to throw out toilet tanks. Nobody would give a shit about it. And I'm a lawyer. I have clients coming. I have done so much work, by the way, since you left. I installed two new toilet tanks. Now, the toilet flush sounds like a military jet."

"So, that was the important business you needed to do. That's why you didn't come for dinner. That's why you didn't want to discuss Debbie's case with me!"