She turns to leave and then she thinks: This might be your only chance. If there’s something inside that incriminates them…or Kyle…there’s no one to do this but you.

Iris turns back to the door. She lifts the two potted plants that stand sentinel by the front door. Empty beneath. She walks, nonchalantly, around the house. There’s no backyard fence; the Butlers back up to a curve of greenbelt. If anyone jogging or walking along the trail should see her in their backyard, well, she’ll wave like the good neighbor she is. She keeps her gaze locked on the house, moving from window to window. All the curtains and blinds are drawn. She reaches the patio and knocks again. Maybe the Butlers, being somewhat antisocial, just don’t answer the front door but a back-door knock will get their attention. Nothing. She searches the wood above the back door, tries the potted plants. Under a brick with the words STEVE AND CARRIE hand painted on it, she finds a key.

Iris decides if an alarm system starts beeping the moment she enters, she’ll just run. She has no excuse to be here.

The door unlocks and she’s in, stepping into the house’s silence. She doesn’t call out. She leaves the door open because if she gets caught, she’ll lie and say the back door was open; she noticed it while walking on the greenbelt and came to investigate, in case her neighbors and new friends were in trouble.

She reminds herself that Steve put that gun in a drawer in the foyer. It may not still be there. Or it might be, if she needs it.

The back door opens onto a breakfast nook and kitchen, which are both empty. She notices the carafe of coffee is partially full, but the heat light is off. Dishes in the sink. She stands and listens to the silence. No distant sound of running water or television hum. No one’s here.

Iris moves quickly through the house, nearly staggering with the idea that she’s done this, but also energized by it. You want to mess with me? My husband? My family? Bring it. Then she thinks of Steve’s awful face when she came here, the sickening false smile of Carrie’s.