Before the Exodus, the apartment in the Clock Tower was the home of the master clockmaker Veretin. He lived beneath the clock for forty years, tending its mechanisms and repairing timepieces for the townspeople, and died shortly after the Exodus. Lefty found this chronotope suited him better than any other and changed little in the apartment. He merely aired out its old man’s smell, replaced the bath, the bed and a few pieces of furniture, brought in his acid gear, trophies and books, and contrived several hiding places. The tower clock was wound only for Christmas. It ran for just three days a year, its brazen peal proclaiming the festive season.