From the backseat, her purse let out a little purring sound: Her phone was vibrating again, this time against her wallet, which accounted for the sound.

Craning her arm around, she tried reach the thing, but Robbie’s nimble little hands got there first.

“It says ‘Trez,’” he announced as he handed the cell over.

She hit send with dread. “Hello?”

“You need to come down to the club right away,” Trez said. “The police are here about the assault and they want to ask you some questions.”

“What assau—” She glanced at Robbie. “I’m sorry, what are you talking about?”

“There was another man found in an alley last night. He had been badly beaten and he’s in critical condition in the hospital. Listen, he’s someone I saw you with—and others did, too. You need to—”

“Mom!”

Marie-Terese slammed on the brakes and the Camry went into a pig-squeal skid, narrowly missing the quarter panel of an SUV that had the right of way. As the other car’s horn blared, the cell phone flipped out of her hand and bounced across the dashboard, ping-ponging all the way over to Robbie’s window before disappearing onto the floor at his feet.

The Camry came to a stop with the lurching grace of a bull and she wheeled around at her son. “Are you okay?”

As she patted her hands over his chest, he nodded and slowly released his death grip on his seat belt. “I think…that light…was red.”

“It sure was.” She pushed her hair out of her face and looked through the front windshield.

The SUV’s furious driver made eye contact, but as soon as the guy saw her face, the anger in him eased—which gave her an idea of how terrified she must appear. As he mouthed, Are you okay?, she nodded, and he lifted his hand in a wave before driving off.

Marie-Terese needed a minute, however—so thank God the Camry had essentially parallel parked itself at the curb.

Well, on the curb.

In the rearview mirror, she saw a man getting out of a blue Subaru that had pulled over behind her. As he walked up, he pushed his glasses a little higher on his nose and tried to smooth his thinning blond hair in the brisk wind. She knew him, she realized…from prayer group meetings and from the previous evening at the confessionals.

She hit the window button, thinking she was surprised he approached. He seemed shy and almost never spoke at the meetings. Which she supposed put him in the same quiet tribe as her.

“Everyone all right?” he asked, bending down and putting his forearm on the roof.

“We are, but that was a close one.” She smiled up at him. “Nice of you to stop.”