Thirty-five minutes later, Lizzie pulled into her driveway. She debated a second as to whether she should put the car in the garage. She decided not to, since she would be going back out later. That’s when she fully noticed that the fog had dissipated. She also noticed something else. She would have missed whatever it was she saw if she hadn’t leaned over to pick up her cell phone, which had slipped out of the pocket of her sweatpants. Someone was inside her house. Someone who didn’t belong inside her house. Her heartbeat kicked up. What to do? Did she imagine it? Was it a trick of the early morning light? Someone was watching her. What to do? What to do? She clicked on the message and saw it was from Jack. She read it, read it again, then formed a plan. She sent off a text that simply said, Meet me at the office.

Lizzie looked around to see if anything else was out of the ordinary. Nothing was, but it was too early in the morning for much activity. There, she saw it again—the movement behind the plantation shutters. Because the sun hit the front window early in the morning, she always kept the shutters three-quarters closed, making it impossible to see out between the slats. The shutters were now three-quarters open, allowing anyone inside to see the outside world, mainly her, clearly. Would whoever was inside rush out and snatch her if she got out of the car? Should she call the police? Jack? No. Not yet. She knew she needed to do something and do it quickly so that whoever was inside didn’t get impatient and rush out and grab her.

Lizzie sucked in a deep breath as she threw open the driver’s-side door, indicating to whoever was inside that she was going to enter the house. She hoped by opening the door they wouldn’t do anything rash, like trying to grab her in full daylight in her very own driveway.

Phone in hand, she walked nonchalantly around to the back of the car just as the trunk lid popped open. She stared down at her son’s baseball mitt, his bat, his tennis racket, and a pile of sweaty shirts that had been left in the trunk way too long. Her eyes grew misty at the sight. On the far side of the trunk was a cardboard carton full of library books. She picked it up, closed the trunk lid, then stopped in her tracks as she pretended her phone was ringing.