Izabel thought that job must seem pointless. But maybe they were doing more than Izabel knew. Maybe they monitored diagnostics on each car. Maybe they called any cars that needed repairs into the garage. Though that person would not be the repairman. That was another person. Every differently trained person of their town.

She told the car to continue, and it headed east. The rows of homes discomfited her. They always did. She watched them intently, as if one might move.

The rows were interrupted now. The four houses that were destroyed by the killer were in various stages of reconstruction, or, more accurately, removal and replacement. She recalled the images from the news—the red dots over the felled homes tricked one into thinking that the lots were greatly overwhelmed by a thing, when actually they were holes in the once uniform street.

And then she saw him.

Kaito had put Cami to bed, but she was rustling now. He sat beside her and put his fingers on her head.

“He is out again,” she said.

The clouds and the pollen-filled air washed out the moonlight that would have flashed against the knife, but Izabel could still make it out. And if she hadn’t been able to, the action of his body—lifting himself, and his arms, landing his clenched hands on the plastic of the dome and dragging them down—it was unmistakable.

Izabel acted without thinking. She paused the car. The prompt came up asking if she wanted to get out, and she pressed Yes. She pulled her mask over her face and ran out, waving her arms, screaming without opening her mouth too far, as she’d learned to do with a mask tight to her chin.

The killer stepped back from the torn opening he’d made. His suit covered every inch of his body; its plastic mask obscured his face. Izabel didn’t think about what to do. She didn’t think about whether she could tackle him, hurt him, delay him in some way. Instead, she climbed through the hole and into the house.

Inside the alarm was blaring. A man was collapsed on the floor. He was the first thing she saw. Her breathing was already becoming difficult. She kneeled and shook him, but he didn’t move. Then she saw, a few steps behind him, a woman, and then their teenage daughter.

Cami began to shake under her father’s hand. “Your mother is there. Your mother is with him.”

“Cami, please wake up,” Kaito said.

“Where’s my mom?

“She is with him.

“She’s home.

“She is not home.”

“Please, Cami, please,” Kaito pleaded. He hit the emergency button on his tablet.