Excerpt: Kitman Versus The Hauntless House

The rain, which I didn't remember from my first trip through the month of June, continued to fall, more and more heavily. The sky darkened from a light pearly grey into a sort of platinum-lead alloy color, which I recognized because Kitman had once dabbled in electrochemical detection of glucose in neutral solution, although I could be just imagining that, since I don't understand half of what he does and can't comprehend the rest. And the temperature continued to fall.

I glanced at Kitman's aneroid barometer, which remained stuck on FAIR until I tapped it and it immediately sank to CHANGE --
-- and at that very moment a small blue station wagon emerged from the tree trunk below me and skated diagonally across Kitman's back yard, narrowly missing Dr. Mrs. Kitman's peony bed before plowing gently into the rear corner of the Kitman garage.

Kitman exited the Tree Lab with a purple umbrella and a large black pleather object with oval holes in it. "Ah, here we go," he said, gazing benevolently down at the small blue station wagon.

"What on earth is that?" I said, indicating the black thing.

"I made a tool vest," he said, putting it on. "Holds all the necessities." He headed for the stepladder to the back yard, snapping open the umbrella as he went. "Come, Thorne, the game's afoot!"