羊毛战记 Part 3 Casting Off 22

　　22,　　After filling out reports, discovering Marnes had no next of kin ¹, speaking with the coroner at the dirtfarm, and answering questions from nosy ² neighbors, Juliette finally took a long and lonely walk upeight flights of stairs, back to her empty office.,　　She spent the rest of the day getting little work done, the door to the cafeteria open, the smallroom much too crowded with ghosts. She tried repeatedly to lose herself in the files from Holston’scomputers, but Marnes’s absence was incredibly sadder than his moping presence had been. Shecouldn’t believe he was gone. It almost felt like an affront ³, to bring her here and then leave her sosuddenly. And she knew this was a horrible and selfish thing to feel and even worse to admit.,　　As her mind roamed, she glanced occasionally out the door, watching the clouds slide across thedistant wallscreen. She debated with herself on whether they appeared light or dense ⁴, if tonight wouldbe a good one for viewing stars. It was another guilt-ridden thought, but she felt powerfully alone, awoman who prided herself on needing no one.,　　She played some more with the maze ⁵ of files as the light of an unseen sun diminished in thecafeteria, as two shifts of lunch and two shifts of dinner vibrated and then subsided ⁶ around her, all thewhile watching the roiling ⁷ sky and hoping, for no real logical reason, for another chance encounterwith the strange star hunter from the night before.,　　And even sitting there, with the sounds and scents ⁸ of everyone on the upper forty-eight eating,Juliette forgot to grab a bite for herself. It wasn’t until the second-shift staff was leaving, the lightscut down to quarter power, that Pam came in with a bowl of soup and a biscuit. Juliette thanked herand reached into her overalls ⁹ for a few chits, but Pam refused. The young woman’s eyes—red fromcrying—drifted to Marnes’s empty chair, and Juliette realized the cafeteria staff had probably been asclose to the deputy as anyone.,　　She was looking for stars on her own when Lukas appeared silently at her side. He didn’t sayanything, just pulled up a chair, sat down with his board and paper, and peered up at the expansiveview of the darkened outside.,　　Juliette couldn’t tell if he was being polite by honoring her silence, or if he was being rude by notsaying hello. She finally settled on the former, and eventually the quiet felt normal. Shared. A peaceat the end of a horrible day.,　　Several minutes passed. A dozen. There were no stars and nothing was said. Juliette held a folderin her lap, just to give her fingers something to do. There was a sound from the stairwell, a laughinggroup moving between the apartment levels below, and then a return to the quiet.,　　“I’m sorry about your partner,” Lukas finally said. His hands smoothed the paper on the board. Hehad yet to make a single mark or note.,　　“I appreciate that, ” Juliette said. She wasn’t sure what the appropriate response was, but thisseemed the least wrong. “I’ve been looking for stars but haven’t seen any,
” she added.,She has gone to live with her husband's kin.她住到丈夫的亲戚家里去了。,Our nosy neighbours are always looking in through our windows.好管闲事的邻居总是从我们的窗口望进来 。