18I put a careful foot on the bottom step. Then stepped cautiously onto the porch. Hanging neatly from nails on each side of the doorframe were chains of different sizes. A set of fine links that looked like a choke collar for a dog. Beside it, a matching piece that would serve as a leash. Then three weightier lengths, strong enough to shackle a full-grown man. One six-foot strand with links so heavy-duty I could see the individual welds despite the fading light.
I pushed at the door. It swung slowly open. The Judds were louder, concert-volume, and the smoky smell was stronger, mixing with the scent of the polished pine floor. I was in a large room on the ground floor of the A-frame, the woodstove centered on bricks beneath a spiraling iron staircase. I got an impression of massive furnit
