God, she’d hated having to explain to her son that they were going to change the names they went by. She’d been worried that he wouldn’t understand…except when she’d started to explain, he’d stopped her. He knew exactly why it had to happen and had told her it was so no one could know who they were.

That facile knowledge had broken her heart.

As her cell whistled again at her, she picked it up. There were few who had the number: Trez, each of the sitters, and the Center for Single Mothers.

It was Trez and the connection was bad, suggesting he was traveling.

“Everything okay?” she asked.

“Did you see the news?”

“I’ve been watching HBO.”

As Trez started talking, Marie-Terese grabbed for the remote and went to the local NBC station. Nothing but the Today show—

The local update chilled her straight to the bone.

“Okay,” she said to him. “All right. Yes, of course. When? Okay, I’ll be there. Thanks. Bye.”

“What’s wrong, Mama?”

Before she looked over at her son, she gathered the reins of her face and reeled her expression in. When she finally turned toward him, she thought he seemed closer to three than seven in his pj’s with his blanket dragging on the floor.

“Nothing. Everything’s fine.”

“You always say that.” He walked over and shuffled up onto the couch. When she handed him the remote, he didn’t change the channel to Nickelodeon. Didn’t even glance at the TV. “Why are you looking like that?”

“Like what?”

“The bad time is back.”

Marie-Terese reached over and kissed his head. “It’s going to be okay. Listen, I’m going to have Susie or Rachel or Quinesha come over and sit with you for a while. I have to go in to work for a minute.”

“Right now?”

“Yes, but I’ll get you breakfast first. Tony the Tiger?”

“When will you be back?”

“Before lunch. Just after, at the latest.”

“Okay.”

As she went into the kitchen, she dialed the Center for Single Mothers’ babysitter service and said a prayer as the ringing started up. When she got voice mail, she left a message and went through the motions of filling up a bowl with Frosted Flakes.

Her hands trembled so badly, they actually helped the cereal out of the box.

Those two college kids from the club were dead. Shot in the alley behind the parking lot. And the police wanted to talk to her because the clubgoer who’d found the bodies had reported seeing the pair harass her.

As she took out the milk, she told herself that it was just a coincidence. People got violently mugged downtown all the time, and those kids had clearly been on drugs. Maybe they’d been trying to make a buy and the transaction had gone south.