"Why'd anybody burn down an orphanage?" said Jimmy.

     "For the insurance," the Viper said. "Or maybe even an orphan was disturbed about bein' mistreated."

     Roy got a kick out of seeing Little Richard do "Long Tall Sally" while he banged on the piano with his right foot, but Rumble on the Docks was phony like Martin Kenna said Nick Kilennis said, with a pretty boy gang leader whose hair never got mussed during a fight. Roy couldn't get the thought of the orphanage fire out of his head, though, and after the show he told Jimmy Boyle and the Viper that he wanted to go by.

     "It's a long way," Jimmy said. "It'll be dark by the time we got there."

     "I got stuff to do," said the Viper.

     Roy walked by himself up Ojibway Boulevard until he came to Terhune, where he turned east toward the lake. Roy kept his head down against the wind as best he could but it didn't do much good. He was freezing and considered giving up but Roy kept walking and when he turned onto Tecumseh Street the wind calmed down.

     There were two hook and ladders and a red car parked inside the big iron gates of Our Lady of Abandoned and Irredeemable Boys. The sky was getting dark fast but from the sidewalk Roy could see the black, smoking skeleton of the orphanage. The gates were closed and no people were visible on the grounds. An old man and a woman passed by on the other side of the street but they did not stop or look over.

     Roy was about to leave when he saw a white-haired man wearing a long brown overcoat appear from around the other side of the orphanage. The man got into the red car and started it up but did not drive away, just sat in it with the motor running. Then tiny dots of light flashed on and off from the ruins like fireflies. Roy figured it was the men from the hook and ladders looking for sparks and smoldering debris.

     The part of the sky right over what was left of Irredeemable Boys was a very dark green while all around it was almost entirely black. For some reason Roy had stopped shivering. Instead of getting colder, the air seemed warmer. Maybe it was about to snow.