“Many of you know,” she says, “that Danielle changed lives for so many families in Lakehaven. Her work in foreign adoptions has helped many here. Including me and Kyle, when we got our son from Russia with Danielle’s help.” Shut up and sit down shut up and sit down. “She helped children from China, from Ghana, from Vietnam, and more all find their forever families here in Lakehaven. She was loved”—stop lying stop lying—“that’s why it’s just unfathomable to me that anyone who knew her could have hurt her.” She clears her throat. Don’t offer a theory shut up and sit down. “I know we’re all looking at each other, wondering how this could have happened in our quiet little neighborhood. I think someone came here and hurt Danielle.” She could not make her mouth form the word murder. “And so, like Mike, I beg you, if you know anything, if you saw anything, if you heard anything, to please come forward.” Her voice steadies, and she glances over at Mike. He nods in gratitude.

“Drugs,” she hears a voice say. She looks to her left, and there’s Matt Sifowicz, one of the two guys who were jogging past when Julia and Ned found Danielle. He stands up slowly. “I think this was theft for drug money. I think someone saw her alone in a park and attempted to rob her. Then they punched her in the throat and killed her.”

“Her purse was still in her home. A diamond ring was still on her finger. She’d gone up to the park, we don’t know why.” Now Detective Ponder has risen and stands next to Mike. “But of course we’re considering every possibility.”

“I saw something,” a woman who lives four houses down from the circle says. Iris has seen her on the street, walking down to the mailbox, but these are newish neighbors who have kept to themselves and Iris doesn’t know her name. “I was up late. I have insomnia. Shopping on an online auction site. My dog was awake and he barked like he does when someone goes past the house. I went to the window, because who’s up and walking at 4:00 a.m., and I saw a man. I think it was a man. Coat, and hat pulled down. He wasn’t walking a dog. And he didn’t have a flashlight.”

“Which way was he coming from?” Ponder asks.

“From the circle, heading toward the park.”

Iris feels the world around her freeze slightly. There are six houses on the circle, another six maybe between the circle and this woman’s home. Twelve husbands. One of them is hers.

“He could have walked in from the greenbelt,” Iris says. “Parked on the other side of it and walked into the neighborhood that way.” The moment she speaks she wonders if people will think she’s covering for Kyle.