“Are you sure I can’t make you a cup of tea, Mrs. Bradley?” Detective Fuller stands by the counter, as if waiting for instructions, his brown eyes full of concern.

“No. Thank you. I’m fine.” But I’m not fine, and he knows it. All the way back, he asked me questions about myself, but I deflected the best I could. I hope that doesn’t make me look as though I’m hiding something, which I am, but nothing to do with that woman’s murder. I tried instead to talk to Alice, reassure her. She was awfully quiet on the way back, and Hayes was upset when I spoke to him on the phone. But Alice rallied when we got close to her house and told me she was fine. She seemed pretty much back to normal. I hope so.

* * *

With Detective Fuller gone, Corrine sits with me at the kitchen table. Although I’m not hungry, she brought takeout Chinese and drinks since I haven’t eaten all day.

“What happened, Molly?”

“They think that missing woman was probably killed the night she disappeared and buried by the river just down from the house while we were asleep inside!” I take a deep breath. Talk myself down, look to Corrine. “Jay might’ve found the necklace in the yard when he went up to fix the window. That’s what I think.” I glance away from my laptop, the camera feed on Jay’s office on the screen. “It was terrifying, Corrine. What Alice and I saw.” I’d already described it to her on the phone and don’t want to think about it again.

Corrine rubs my arm. “Try to eat something. Did you ever call that therapist Elise referred you to?”

I swallow, poke at my lo mein. “I will. I definitely will.” I try to hold them back, but tears slip down my cheeks.

“Hey, I’m here. It’s going to be okay.”

I sniff. “What if they think Jay killed that woman? It’s not possible, but I get the feeling they think he was involved.”

“That’s crazy. Jay wasn’t a killer.”

“What if someone back in Mountclair thinks he did it and that’s who killed him? Why else would someone kill Jay? There has to be a connection, Corrine.”

“Didn’t you say the woman had a boyfriend and they were fighting before she disappeared? It’s usually the husband or the boyfriend, right?”

“Yeah. That could be, and then maybe he thought that Jay saw him, and that’s why he killed Jay.” This is the scenario that makes the most sense. I know my husband wasn’t a killer.

“I let Mom and Dad know what happened.”

“Great.”

Corrine pauses, chopsticks in her hand. “What was I supposed to do, let them see it on the news?”

“No. That’s fine.”