She sees a shadow start to pass over his face, as if he is asking himself the question and considering the answers, and then he presses his face into Iris’s shoulder. She begins to stand, and he resists, but then the redheaded jogger gently raises the boy to his feet, and Iris guides Ned toward the police car that has just pulled up. The weight of him against her shoulder is the weight of this new, awful reality.

She hears words being spoken—Matt, remaining calm; the officer, taking command of the scene; Julia brokenly starting to tell them what happened—but she focuses on Ned, on steering him away from the horror, on holding him up, on comforting him. Another police car arrives.

Ned shudders under her arm.

Iris looks back at Danielle, an empty shell on a cold bench.

She can never tell now.

Iris hugs the grieving boy closer to her.

4

Transcript from Interviews for A Death in Winding Creek by Elena Garcia

Elena Garcia: How long have you lived in Winding Creek?

Matt Sifowicz: Nearly seventeen years. We bought early. I mean, some people don’t buy until their kids are school age. And all the prices do here is go up. So we bit the bullet and got in when our son was a baby. Would have cost me an extra forty thousand if we’d waited until he was in kindergarten.

Garcia: People really buy here for the school district.

Sifowicz: And everything that comes with it. The football team, the music programs, the robotics and business incubator programs, the college placement, the real estate investment…That is what sells Lakehaven.

Garcia: And low crime. Presumably.

Sifowicz: You have to realize, we’ve never had a murder in this neighborhood. Tools being stolen from a garage is a rare kind of crime in Winding Creek. Maybe one or two burglaries, or stuff being taken from cars in driveways. The most common is trespassing, people who don’t live in the neighborhood going down to our greenbelt to tube in the creek, drink beer, smoke pot. Sometimes they start campfires, which is a threat to the whole greenbelt and every home in the neighborhood.

Garcia: So Winding Creek—the actual creek and the surrounding greenbelt—is on private property.

Sifowicz: Yes, owned collectively by the home owners in the neighborhood. I’m on the HOA board. Four hundred houses. Average sale price now is eight hundred thousand. That’s twice what some people bought theirs for fifteen years ago. This is a good place to be.

Garcia: How did you feel the Pollitts were viewed here in the neighborhood?

Sifowicz: Pretty well. They were popular. Iris is kind of a force of nature. Everyone knows her.

Garcia: What was your first thought when you saw Julia Pollitt and Ned Frimpong in the park?