Butch Dugan and Ruth McCausland

Butch Dugan and Ruth McCausland share a bond that is defined less by an openly declared romance than by Dugan’s belated recognition of its depth. He had loved Ruth and, he believes, might have found the courage to propose within another year. Her death leaves him looking for a way to make sense of the loss, and his willingness to follow Ev Hillman into danger grows directly out of that grief.

Concern Before the Last Conversation

Dugan had already noticed that Ruth was not acting like herself. Her handling of the search for David Brown seemed unprofessional to him, an unusual lapse that troubled him even before their final conversation. His concern was therefore not simply hindsight: he had sensed a change in someone whose judgment he knew and trusted.

The night before Ruth died, Dugan called her to exchange information about the investigation. He had little concrete to offer, but he passed on Ev’s suspicion that something strange had happened to the town. Ruth did not dismiss the idea as nonsense or treat Ev as a man whose mind had failed. The line grew unreliable, and Dugan could not make out all of her words; what remained was the impression that she told him to warn Ev to stay away, spoken in a voice marked by sadness and exhaustion. He also thought he heard an odd reference to nylon stockings, but the failing connection left him unsure of the words.

Ruth’s Death and Dugan’s Choice

Ruth died the next day. Her warning stayed with Dugan, and the memory returned when Ev’s visit brought back the unease he had temporarily set aside while dealing with the disappearance of two troopers he knew. Dugan was perplexed by Ev’s insistence, yet he agreed to go with him, surrendering the choice of route and car to the older man.

Dugan understood that Ev had not simply talked him into the decision. He had jumped. His work in Fraud and Bunco had taught him to distrust schemes that seemed too extraordinary to be true, and he felt as if he had paid for the Brooklyn Bridge despite knowing it could not really be for sale. But the thought that no one gets taken unless they want to be taken did not make his decision a con; it helped him recognize that he was choosing to go.

Love, Grief, and the Search for a Cause

The narration identifies Dugan’s love for Ruth as the force behind his choice. He imagined that, given another year or so, he might have proposed. That unrealized possibility gives his grief a particular weight: he is mourning both Ruth and a future he had not yet dared to ask for.

Dugan also recognizes the emotional logic of following Ev. When someone loved dies, he thinks, it can be easier to believe that a person or force one can confront was responsible than to accept a stupid mischance. Such a belief cannot undo Ruth’s death, but it can make the emptiness feel smaller. His decision to investigate Haven is thus at once an act of loyalty to her warning and an attempt to give her death a cause he can pursue.