"The bridge parti" The narrator tells us that he's just gotten back from a liquor store, where he talked to the manager about getting a bottle of wine for Sara. He's worried that she's having an affair with a guy named Jackie, but he doesn't know what to say. He tells her that Jackie isn't a bad boy, and that he wants her to understand that he is a good man. He says that sometimes, when he lets someone into his life, it creeps up on him. The sheriff's detective and the city's missing-persons detective show up, and they tell the narrator that they've just had another missing person case. This time, the missing person was a girl, and two boys. They're going to take a look at the missing kids' dog, which is apparently spooked by something. The narrator asks the detective where he went, and the detective tells him to come back later that night.