River Road(Sable Jetty)

River Road(Sable Jetty) winds along the western bank of the Hudson River, linking Sable Jetty’s old waterfront square to the state highway while climbing around a projecting hillock. Its route and houses preserve the town’s class history, but in the present-day narrative the road also becomes the exposed perimeter of Burke Devore’s search for Hauck Curtis Exman: a place where he can watch a house, yet cannot safely approach or identify its occupant.

Setting and historical character

The road begins at the square in front of the former ferry dock and runs north, leaving the town almost immediately as it curves around the long, gradual slope of the hillock. It does not follow the water’s edge. Instead, it occupies part of the slope, with larger houses on the uphill side and smaller, shacklike homes between the road and river. That arrangement reflects an older division of means and work: the substantial houses were built to give doctors, aldermen, and hardware-store owners river views, while working-class residents lived nearer the water, where fishing could supplement low incomes.

The setting carries traces of an earlier waterfront economy. The cove below the hillock offered a calm basin out of the river’s current; canoes were launched there, European explorers landed there, and a settlement and ferry later developed. That prosperity has passed. The ferry office is now the county historical museum, the dock is gone, and old brick and wooden houses rise unevenly from the river’s edge. Their picturesque appearance seems increasingly detached from the lives once lived in them. River Road’s houses, in turn, register both the town’s former hierarchy and the changes that have narrowed the space around its grander properties.

Houses, parcels, and access

The house at 27 River Road is a conspicuous example of the uphill properties. It is a large brick house with a broad, curved porch supported by thick pillars painted creamy yellow. A strip of lawn slopes from the front wall to a low white picket fence, now plastic rather than wood; blacktop driveways flank the lawn. Smaller, newer houses press close on both sides. The arrangement suggests that the property once had more space, before its side lots were sold in the 1950s.

The road’s larger geography makes the hillock difficult to reach from alternative directions. After circling it, River Road angles west and dead-ends at State Route 9, the main north–south highway on that side of the river. Route 9 continues south but has no other turnoffs before reaching Sable Jetty. No other road enters or crosses the hillock area. A private, electrically gated road climbs from River Road to the mansion at the hillock’s summit, now a Buddhist retreat, but its fence shuts that route away from neighbors and passing traffic. The road therefore offers a circuit around the hillock rather than a network of concealed approaches.

Surveillance at 27 River Road

On a Monday morning at 11:30, Burke Devore drives south past 27 after taking Marjorie Devore to an appointment. A red-haired woman in a tan sweatshirt and blue jeans is mowing the lawn in slow ovals. The detached garage is closed, the blacktop is empty of cars, and an oversized silver mailbox stands beside the driveway with its flag raised. Burke notices the mailbox as a possible point of attack, but he has no Luger pistol with him. The ordinary details of the property become, in his attention, a set of practical constraints.

Burke continues into town and studies his road atlas from a parked car. The road’s exposed curve, the houses always visible along it, and the absence of public parking leave him no discreet way to approach the target’s house from behind. He has seen no apparently vacant properties or For Sale signs nearby. The smaller houses along the river may be seasonal homes, but it is June, the summer season has begun, and boats are at the rickety docks; any of those houses might be occupied, even on a Monday. The road’s openness makes surveillance possible, but makes an unobserved attack harder.

When Burke loops back north, the mower is making smaller circles, the garage door is open, and the garage is empty. He realizes that Hauck Curtis Exman has left while he was in town, perhaps passing him without being recognized. Burke does not know what Exman looks like or what car he drives. He goes to a diner by the junction with State Route 9, eats his usual BLT, and wonders whether Exman could be working there, perhaps out of sight in the kitchen, or whether he has merely gone to get the newspaper and returned home. The road supplies observations, but not the identity needed to turn them into a usable trail.

Narrative role

After lunch, Burke finds the mailbox flag down, indicating that the mail has been delivered; the garage remains open and empty, and both the woman and mower have disappeared. He drives several miles south to a scenic river-view parking area, but gives the view little attention. His problem is how to find Exman, identify him, and follow him, and then how to kill him without a gun. At 1:30 he returns to 27 River Road and sees no change. Exman is still gone.

The day ends without an approach or an encounter. Burke feels anxious and impatient because he believes his campaign is nearly finished, but he also knows that rushing could create another mess or bring the police to him. He leaves by Route 9, passing the mall and heading toward the bridge and home. In this sequence, River Road’s distinctive physical features repeatedly shape the action: its single exposed curve limits access, its inhabited houses make concealment uncertain, and its visible household routines offer clues that remain frustratingly incomplete.