Robin didn’t even really know how to answer that. “It’s hitting a few speed bumps.”

Amber laughed. “Don’t want to say I told you so, but...”

“Yeah, you were right. People around here, they just seem content with what’s happened. The Five—they’re just...gone and people are carrying on like nothing happened. How is that possible? How can you live next to a mystery like this and not wonder what happened to them? I mean, how does something like that happen?”

Amber turned a corner onto a village green. And past that, a church. There was a stream of people going inside. Everywhere else was quiet. But the church, even standing across the green like he was, seemed to pulse with activity, as if everyone in town was there.

Amber stopped and turned to Robin. “I think you’ll find your answer here. You’ll see why people need to accept they’re gone, need to draw a line under what happened.”

Robin watched as more people filed into the church. They were all dressed in muted colors as though this were a funeral instead of a vigil. He guessed in some ways it was.

Robin nodded. “Okay.”

And Amber nodded too, leading him across the green and into the church.

Chapter Twenty-Three

The church was busy, with many of the pews already full of people. Robin and Amber slid into a pew at the back. Robin looked around at a sea of faces he hadn’t seen around Marsden before, but eventually he saw people he recognized. There was Benny Masterson, and Martha Hobson, and a couple of people he knew by sight from the pub. Most people were keeping their heads down. If they talked, they talked in hushed tones, careful not to be too loud.

Suddenly, Robin felt eyes on him, and shivering, he turned his head to see a young woman in the corner of the room. She was looking directly at him. She stood out, as she wasn’t all in black. She had a purple hoodie on and had her hands in her pockets. As Robin met her gaze, she didn’t look away. Finally Robin did. But he could still sense her watching.

“I’d like to thank you all for coming,” a voice said, and Robin looked to the front of the church to see a man in black with a vicar’s collar. Behind him, several people had appeared, sitting on the stage area.

“Are they the parents?” Robin whispered to Amber.

There were only five people on the stage but there were eight seats. “That’s Mrs. Pack,” Amber said, gesturing to the woman at the far end. She looked incredibly old and exhausted. She was dressed in a ragged-looking jumper and jeans—not something he would have expected of an event such as this.