The Butlers. If someone called in an anonymous tip against her family, it had to be the Butlers. Steve with his bruised knuckles and Carrie with her whispered threats. And now Iris is certain: Carrie Butler has implicated her husband as being the unseen figure walking the streets the night of the murder, the boogeyman to scare Winding Creek.

They are hiding something. They could have lied about their patched relationship with Danielle. They could have killed her, and they could be framing her husband.

She walks down to the Butler house. Neither car is in the driveway, but the garage door is closed. They keep to themselves.

Detectives Ponder and Ames were both at the neighborhood rally. They heard Carrie Butler talk. They know she saw someone. Now this, searching in their trash and finding something unimaginable.

Why did Kyle have the phone? Were they…?

Iris cannot imagine them together and then she does, Kyle’s strong back, moving, Danielle’s vapid face contorted in pleasure, writhing under Kyle, squirming under her husband. Sure. It could happen. Kyle’s been off, the accident on the greenbelt—maybe there was no accident. Maybe someone beat him up. But if someone knew about the affair, why not go to the police immediately to say, Hey, take a look at Kyle Pollitt?

It didn’t happen. It never happened.

She stands before the Butler house.

They hate you. They didn’t get a baby, and you did, and they hate you and Kyle. And they hated Danielle. She could see the hatred for Danielle under their honeyed explanations. Sure. But that she and Kyle had gotten a child when Russia still offered them, well, it was crazy to hate them for that. The Butlers’ shortcomings as potential adoptive parents were their own issue.

But people weren’t logical when it came to babies, or happiness, or the lives they think they should have and don’t. She wasn’t.

Never ask me how much I would love this baby. Her words to Danielle that had managed to find a sticking spot deep in her brain.

What would the Butlers do? Imagine the unimaginable: Kyle and Danielle have an affair. Somehow the Butlers find out about it. Could they have blackmailed Danielle into taking them back on as clients? Would she place an innocent child with them for their silence? Maybe she agreed and then changed her mind and Steve Butler aimed that massive fist at Danielle’s throat and…

She walks up the Butlers’ empty driveway. She rings the front doorbell. Waits. There’s no answer. She knocks on the door. No answer. They’ve gone to work. Steve works for a software company, he said. Is Carrie working a nursing shift, or has she gone to run a few quick errands?