Dyer's Eddy is a small Connecticut town gathered around a spring-fed whirlpool on the Pocochaug stream. For Burke Devore, it is both an unexpectedly restful public landscape and the setting of reconnaissance against Kane Bagley Asche: the footbridge, parking area, and road up toward Kane Bagley Asche’s home connect an ordinary local attraction to Burke Devore’s preparations for murder.

Setting and Landscape

The town sits in Connecticut, less than thirty miles from Burke Devore’s starting point. Its main street, New Haven Road, follows the west bank of the Pocochaug before the road bends right as the stream bends left. The settlement lies at that turn; just above it, near the northern town limit, the stream forms the eddy that gives Dyer's Eddy its name. The whirlpool is small and seasonal, fed in spring by snowmelt and rain, and the Pocochaug is a tributary of the Housatonic River.

A small parking area lies between New Haven Road and the water. A wooden footbridge, built of planks over an iron structure, crosses the stream above the eddy and curves down toward a modest park on the opposite bank. Boulders break through the ground there, with picnic benches and a seasonal snack shop among the trees. The arrangement gives the attraction the scale of a local stopping place rather than a developed destination: road, water, bridge, and park fit close together.

The Eddy as a Local Attraction

On a Sunday afternoon in May, about seven cars are parked by the stream when Burke Devore arrives, making his car the eighth. Around half a dozen people lean on the footbridge’s stripped-bark log railing and watch the water. Burke Devore sees the eddy as water behaving much as it does when a sink is emptied, only on a larger scale; the visitors’ attention to it is a local habit whose appeal he does not share. Some people appear still to be there when he looks back from the park, suggesting that watching the water is not merely a brief stop for everyone present.

The bank on the far side provides a quiet interval in Burke Devore’s day. The snack shop is open, though he buys nothing; instead, he walks around the building and through the park. Among the trees, he feels relaxed, in striking contrast to the difficult task he has come to contemplate and the terrible news Marjorie has delivered earlier that day. The calm is temporary, but consequential: the place gives him a respite before he returns to the road and resumes his surveillance.

Footbridge Road and the Reconnaissance

The footbridge also serves as a practical clue. Burke Devore knows that Kane Bagley Asche’s address is on Footbridge Road and infers that the road winding uphill beyond the parking area is the one he is looking for. From the park he can see a few houses through the pine trees, but he cannot tell whether Kane Bagley Asche’s house is among them; he has forgotten the house number. The landscape offers partial visibility, not certainty.

Burke Devore walks back across the bridge and continues uphill. He considers starting a conversation or asking for directions, then decides that talking would be a mistake. His earlier contact with Everett Dynes made killing more difficult because he had spoken with him and come to like him; this time, Burke Devore intends to avoid knowing his target. Kane Bagley Asche and his wife are working toward vegetable self-sufficiency at their property. A black Honda Accord in the driveway gives Burke Devore a license number to memorize, turning a domestic detail into surveillance information.

Return and Narrative Significance

As Burke Devore comes back down to New Haven Road and crosses to the parking lot, a state trooper is inspecting damage to the front of his Voyager. The trooper asks whether the car is his and how it was damaged. Burke Devore is surprised that an alert has reached this distant town, though he conceals his reaction. The encounter makes the parking area more than a neutral landmark: while Burke Devore is trying to observe a target without attracting notice, his own damaged vehicle draws official attention.

He returns to Footbridge Road the next morning, turning onto it at about quarter to ten after setting out shortly after nine. On the drive, he has decided that if Kane Bagley Asche and his wife continue living together, he will kill them both. At their property, the Accord is gone, but Kane Bagley Asche’s wife is in the garden wearing a pale yellow T-shirt and white headband, with a clipboard on which she appears to be drawing a chart of the garden. Burke Devore realizes that Kane Bagley Asche is likely in the absent car and regrets not arriving earlier. Dyer's Eddy thus brings the violence of his plan into contact with a visible, routine domestic world: a garden being mapped, a car leaving the driveway, and a public footbridge where visitors still watch the water.