First, he found a plastic shopping bag in the garage and put his puke-filled ski mask in it. He would keep that in the front seat of the SUV so that he could get rid of it somewhere along the drive. He put his rucksack with the phones, computer, and knife on the passenger seat and the thirty grand into the glove box. He placed Sandy’s cell phone on the console, still turned on. David would call once he arrived home, and that call would be used to locate the path of her phone—the false trail that Spud would leave.

He went down to the basement where Pip still sat on the couch. The boy looked at him with curiosity as Spud gathered suitcases from a storage room. He gave the boy a smile as he passed by on his way back upstairs. He carried the suitcases to Sandy’s bedroom and began filling them with clothing from her closet and drawers. Like the Grinch in the Dr. Seuss story, Spud took everything that looked like it might belong to the woman, and when the suitcases were full, he used garbage bags. He took the pill bottles from the medicine cabinet with her name on them. He took her jewelry box, her laptop, her hair products and makeup—everything.

When he had finished in Sandy’s bedroom, he did the same in Pip’s, loading toys and clothing into a bag. He loaded school records, pictures and mementos, everything that a woman would take if she were running away to start a new life with her son. That would be the story the police would uncover.

He set aside some clothing for Pip to wear now, along with a coat and hat. He also set aside a portable game console to keep the boy entertained as they drove. Within an hour, he had the cargo area of the SUV filled with garbage bags and suitcases, Sandy’s body buried beneath it all.

The final thing the man packed was Pip’s pillow, the one that the boy hugged every night when he went to bed, the one he’d had since he was a toddler, the pillow he’d named Bobby. Pip would never leave home without his pillow. Spud had done his homework. With his task complete, he took Pip’s clothes downstairs, where the boy had fallen asleep on the couch, curled up with his hands tucked between his knees. He looked cold, and the man regretted not giving Pip a blanket earlier. He knelt down in front of the boy and gently shook his shoulders.

“Hey, buddy, wake up.”

Pip opened a tired eye, looking confused. He sat up slowly, and the man handed Pip the clothes. “Can you put these on?”

Pip nodded. He seemed a very polite and quiet child. “Where’s Mommy?”

“We need to run a little errand. Your mom said you should do what I say. You can do that, can’t you, buddy?”

After putting Pip’s coat on him and taking him to the SUV, he buckled him into the booster seat and handed him the game to play with.