They’re all there. They rise as one as she enters and embrace her in a group hug. Iris tells herself she must hold it together. Can’t cry. Francie starts crying, and Iris fights the urge. They’re not crying for her. They’re crying for Danielle. The last time they were together was Halloween, several weeks ago, following their tradition of trick-or-treating with their international crew of kids, this time in Iris and Danielle’s neighborhood, even though most of the kids were too old for it now. Iris remembers her and Danielle, bundled up against the unseasonable cold that night, walking together to catch up to their friends who had already come by. Glasses of wine and chocolate as they walked behind a knot of kids.

That seems forever ago.

The embrace breaks, and they sit. Susan gets Iris a mocha, her favorite. Iris lets their talk wash over her. No one asks her, “How are you?” or “How awful was it?” or any such thing. They know it was awful. They know she’s a wreck. That need not be discussed. She sips at her coffee, and for the first time since she saw the body, she feels herself relax, just the tiniest bit.

“Ned,” Susan says.

“He’s not good. It was horrible for him and Julia. His father is coming in from London as we speak. It’s awkward. Gordon hasn’t had nearly enough contact with him, and now he’s his only parent.”

“Ned is not going to be an easy kid to suddenly parent,” Francie says.

“What do you mean?”

“He’s just a boundary pusher,” Francie said. “Danielle found some weed in his room, not much. And he’s been with a crowd Danielle didn’t love—a couple of kids that got expelled from Lakehaven last year.”

“I didn’t realize,” Iris said.

“Danielle didn’t talk about it,” Francie said. And Iris thinks, Well, not to me.

“He might go back to London with his father,” Iris says. “I don’t think he wants to go.”

The three make various noises of dismay. “He can stay with us,” Susan offers. “Through his last year of high school. We can do that. I’ll tell Roger. Surely his father doesn’t want to take Ned away from everything he knows.”

Iris marvels at how Susan can make such an offer. Just take in a kid, sure. “Distance might be good,” Iris says after a moment. “I was there when the police first talked to him. In an observation room. Ned said he was going to find out who killed her.”

“What, like solve the case?” Georgina says with a wide stare.

“I guess.”

“But this was a random attack in a park, right?” Francie says.

“Maybe not,” Susan says. “The police should look at her client list, her acquaintances. Or people who didn’t get a kid.”

“You mean people Danielle rejected?”