Was this Will? Did he sneak out early after what happened last night? Or did he tell Amy and this is her way of warning me to stay away? Or is it worse than that? Did Jane or Chris see me standing below their son’s window or find scraps of my message and take matters into their own hands?

I walk to the end of the street and stare at their house. The gate is closed, but both cars are already gone. It could have been any of them. Chris leaves for work early while Jane takes Amy and Will to school.

Whoever it was, it means I’m right. Mum would say I’m making something out of nothing, but this is proof that they’re rattled. This is the type of warning only bad people send. Or scared people.

“Morning,” someone says behind me, and, when I turn, our neighbor, Mrs. Hawkins, is putting her trash out.

“Hi,” I say, and then, because it’s worth a shot, “Did you see anyone in our driveway this morning?”

She thinks for a moment. “There was someone, yes. But I couldn’t see their face. It’s cold, see. I thought it was one of you with your hood up.”

She points at our house and says, “I should have known better. They were looking through your window.”

I stifle a shiver. “Could you tell how big they were?”

“I’m sorry, love. I didn’t get a good look. Is it something to worry about?”

“No,” I lie. “Everything’s fine.”

Mrs. Hawkins nods and creeps back to her front door. Whoever she saw didn’t just leave the message. They were watching us.

Is it payback? Do they know how much I can see from my bedroom window? Or have I pushed too hard and they’re looking for different reasons?

The problem is I can’t stop now. I’m on to something, and someone is trying to stop me. If I was hoping for a sign that I’m right, it was drawn into the frost, now melting at my feet.

62

Amy teaches bad parents a lesson. That’s what she told me. But do you need to change a child’s clothes to do that? People wear disguises to escape. They hide the truth in something else, like a kid who’s not yours in a mustard-colored coat.

If I hadn’t stopped her, would she have taken that boy from the shopping center? I should have let it play out. I should have watched Amy from afar, not walked headfirst into her game. And then I’d know. Because I’m not sure if she was giving that mum a brief moment of terror or something worse. Maybe she was planning on making that boy disappear long enough for the lesson never to be forgotten.