The police have searched the house. They’ve taken Kyle’s computers, they’ve taken the clothes Kyle wore the past four days, they’ve taken his coats, and they’ve searched his car. They found the cash in Grant’s room, which Iris lies about, saying it’s emergency cash they keep on hand. They’ve given an inventory list to Iris, and she notices a Chromebook she doesn’t remember owning. It was in Kyle’s car trunk. But she says nothing, and she hands back the list.

After the police leave, Julia tells Grant about Ned’s drug dealing and her involvement; they all need to be on the same page. Grant just looks at her like he doesn’t know her. The children have now each retreated to their rooms.

The doorbell rings. She’s had on the news, and while there are reports an arrest has been made, they haven’t yet announced that it is Kyle or that he’s made a confession. Iris wonders what they’re waiting on.

I have concerns about his confession, Ponder had said. What did that mean?

She answers the door. A fortyish woman, attractive. “Mrs. Pollitt? I’m Elena Garcia. I’m a reporter with KATX.”

“I have nothing to say.” Iris starts to shut the door.

“I spoke to your friend Francie Neville,” Elena says. “She talked to me about some oddities of the adoption experience with Mrs. Roberts. I’m wondering if that’s an angle that should be further explored in this case.”

Iris shakes her head. “I have nothing to say.” She closes the door.

She leans against it in shock. What her son has shown her, what Kyle has done, what Danielle could have kept… She wonders if she will ever sleep again.

Her phone keeps ringing. Friends, or people she thought were friends. She goes into the bathroom to wash her face. To try to order her thoughts. She doesn’t hear Julia go out the back door.

51

Julia

Julia hears voices on the greenbelt trail.

It’s that loosely organized band of neighborhood parents, and under a streetlight she hears them calling to one another, laughing.

She thinks that as soon as news of her father’s confession breaks, this so-called patrol won’t have a reason to exist. But she can’t let them catch her or spot her. She’s arranged a meeting and she can’t miss it. She sees two of them, both fathers of girls she knows from Lakehaven High, go one way on the road, and then she sees a big redheaded man—that would be Steve Butler, who helped right after they found Danielle’s body—head off alone in another direction. The direction she intends to follow. But he’s on the street, walking, glancing around, and she sticks to the dark of the greenbelt. She doesn’t even turn on the flashlight app on her phone.

The abandoned Carlyle house again.