“No,” he said. “I didn’t.”

“I would’ve felt better if I had oxygen in my house, but I was always worried it’d explode or something. I thought, ‘How stupid would that be, if I blew myself up before I got killed?’”

“Stupid,” he said.

“Do you have a girlfriend or a boyfriend?” Izabel asked.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“I’m not in a rush. I’m still young.”

“Yeah. So you’re just playing the field?”

“Yeah.”

“Where do you take someone on a date?”

“Why? You want to go on one?”

“Depends on where you take people,” she said with a laugh. She hoped it didn’t come off as fake to him.

“I’d take you to a restaurant.”

“Which one?”

“I’d let you pick.”

“Whichever one’s your favorite,” she said. “I love finding out other people’s favorites.”

“I like Haruki’s Sushi.”

“I like it there, too.”

“Yeah? You’ve been there?”

“Yeah. Lots of times.”

“Yeah,” he said.

“Where’s your dad now?” Izabel asked.

He looked down again. “Home, I guess.”

“I mean, where does he live?”

Patrick didn’t answer.

“Here, I have a map,” she said, bringing out the blank map. “Can you point to where?”

He didn’t even lean forward.

“What about on this map?” She brought out the map marked with the killings.

Now he looked up. “Where do you live?” he said.

“I live right here.” She pointed, landing her finger next to the dot on her neighbors’ house.

“These last few weeks, too?”

“I’ve been staying with friends.”

“Why?”

“I was scared after I came across the killer.”

“Why would he care about where you lived?”

“Maybe he was worried I could identify him.”

“But you can’t.”

He didn’t say it like a question, but she answered it like he had. “No,” she said. “Does your father live near me?”

“No,” he said.

“Did he apply to leave?”

“No,” he said. “He wouldn’t leave.”

“Why?”

“It’s crazy how many people left,” he deflected.

“Yeah. There are definitely a few empty houses now. Do you have empty houses around you?”

“I don’t know,” he said.

Paz said, in her ear, “Press him.”

“All your neighbors are still there?”

“I told you—I don’t know.”

“Yeah, but you must notice who’s coming and going from their houses, kids going back and forth to school.”

“No, I don’t.”

“I mean, how could you not notice, like, if the lights are never on anymore?”

“No!” He nearly shouted it.

    Chapter Thirty-Four

Paz’s team searched every abandoned dome that was anywhere near Patrick’s house. In one, they found everything: the knife, oxygen tanks, even a hospital bed that Patrick must have wheeled over in the night. Everything but Patrick’s father.