She walks over to the area of flooring she was jumping on a few minutes ago. Metal rings against stone as she sets down a pry bar and a small shovel. She pulls her gray T-shirt over her head, balls it up and drops it on top of the workbench. She’s sinewy and strong in her sports bra and running shorts, and I feel her raw vulnerability as I wonder where the cops are.

“Have you heard from the Concord police?” I ask Marino. “Are they there yet?”

Chapter 41

CHAPTER 41

THE MUSCLES OF HER SHOULDERS AND UPPER ARMS flex as she finds a folded tarp and opens it near the area of flooring she was jumping on a few minutes ago.

I’m reminded of how supremely fit and disciplined Lucy is. She rarely drinks alcohol. She’s vegan. She runs and works out daily with weights and TRX bands. I catch a glimpse of the small dragonfly on her flat lower abdomen and think about what the whimsical tattoo hides. Carrie scarred her. Carrie marked her for life. Carrie might be inside the house. She could be no more than a room or two away. Lucy and Janet have no idea and I can’t reach them.

“I’ve not heard shit.” Marino answers my question about the Concord police. “Let me try my guy there again.”

I’m not intimate with every nook and cranny inside the house Lucy built after we relocated to Massachusetts some five years ago. But I’m familiar with where she and Janet are right now and know that the entire area is monitored by surveillance devices. Lucy is technically sophisticated and meticulous. So is Janet. It was only months ago they began talking about adopting Desi and upgrading the security system.

“Really?” Lucy puts on a pair of thick leather work gloves. “They come in here and do this and we’re not supposed to have any recourse?” She picks up the pry bar. “Talk about an unfair fight.”

“There are no words for how unfair this is,” Janet says.

“The kurz is going to be planted somewhere around here. You know that right?”

“Did Erin say something that made you think she was planting evidence?”

“She wanted me to think it and start packing my bags for going down the river.”

“Where would she have hidden it?”

“Maybe out there in the woods where somebody’s been but the cameras aren’t picking up anything,” Lucy says. “Maybe it’s buried out there like Blackbeard’s treasure so the FBI can magically dig it up and send me to prison. Maybe Carrie was out there in the woods watching Erin hide the damn thing. That would almost be funny.”

“When for a fact did you ever see Erin with the MP5K?”

“I didn’t see it and wouldn’t have known about it. But Carrie had to brag. She just couldn’t resist rubbing it in.”