“I’m just trying to make sense of this, Austin. I dropped her off right there.” I pointed out the screen door into the night, finger aimed at the patch of concrete where I had parked and let her out. “And watched her walk through your yard. If she didn’t go to your house, where would she have gone?”

“I don’t know, I swear.” He shook his head with an almost believable conviction. “I would have told the police if I knew anything. I loved Vera…I still do. You know I would never hurt her, right?”

“Of course I know that.” I grinned, but I felt like weeping. Why wouldn’t Austin just tell me the truth?

A door slammed, followed by a baby’s wail. Then a gale of footsteps, and more yelling uncomfortably close as a woman emerged from a hallway wearing nothing but an oversized T-shirt that came down her to knees. She was short and stout, a sturdy fireplug of a woman with a florid face and mean little piggish eyes. I knew the wary, hateful look she shot me all too well. It was clear she wasn’t happy about having a Black woman in her house.

“Who the hell are you, and what you doin’ talkin’ to my boy?” she demanded, spittle flecking my face.

“Mom,” Austin said, stepping between me and his mother, “this is Vera’s aunt. We were just talking about Vera.”

“Vera’s aunt?” She eyed me with a chilling skepticism.

“By marriage,” I explained. “Nice to meet you, ma’am. I’m Marin.” I held out my hand, but I might as well have held a gun in it. I let it drop to my side as she stared me down. I felt a strange sensation like this was improvisational theatre and I was winging my lines with a stingy actor who refused to give me something to work with.

“And who’s this guy?” she asked, jerking her head at Cody.

“He’s my husband.”

She raised one pierced eyebrow in disapproval while Cody squirmed under her got a taste for the dark meat, huh, white boy? glare.

“So you’re Vera’s kin, huh? She was a good girl. Sorry for your loss.”

It was an odd thing to say when Vera was missing, not dead.

“I appreciate that. We’re hopeful that we’ll find her soon.”

She crossed her arms tight against her stomach. “The baby needs fed, Austin.” She stepped toward me, an aggressive get-the-hell-out-of-my-house gesture that didn’t match her formal goodbye. “It was nice meetin’ you. Give your family my condolences.”

With a protective arm around my waist, Cody led me outside straight to the car. The rain had softened to a mist, but the urgency to run felt just as strong as before.