“What other message would it be?” Ronnie asked.

“Maybe . . . keep quiet. Or else.”

“Keep quiet about . . . what?” Ronnie whispered. “The attack?” Her eyes widened. “Who might have really done it?”

“Maybe? I mean, maybe someone’s worried we saw something. And this same someone has leverage on us. They know things we don’t want public. Things that tarnish who we are as people—make us look more culpable, maybe more unhinged. And it seems they’re trying to use those things to make us look guilty . . . and to ensure we don’t talk.”

“Who could that be?” Lauren asked. “Who could have found out these things?”

“I don’t know. But it’s who we need to track down. We can’t let whoever it is ruin us.”

Everyone walked a bit. Andrea’s ankles were starting to ache, but she didn’t want to complain. Ronnie said, “You think it connects to the messages in the backpacks . . . or that’s just a coincidence?”

“I don’t even know if mine was so nasty anymore,” Lauren mumbled. “I told Graham about it, and he said it didn’t sound so bad. And then when I went to grab the other note—that one you saw Piper stick in my backpack yesterday, Ronnie—you know what it said?” She looked wrecked. “She just wanted to set up a ‘new mom’ meeting.”

Andrea thought of the drawing Arthur had received. The X through her body. How someone had pressed so hard with the crayon to write no it had creased the page. Had she misinterpreted that, too? But no. No. There was no way that message was a joke.

“Maybe that was to confuse you. To second-guess yourself,” Ronnie said.

Lauren just peered at her hopelessly. “What if it was Piper we saw in the hallway?” she asked. “Like, what if she was coming after us? She knew we were in her office. Doing things we shouldn’t have been doing. And if she’s keeping some kind of secret . . . if there’s something in there we’re not supposed to see . . .”

They thought about this for a moment. A plane zoomed overhead. Andrea got a faint whiff of cigarette smoke and suddenly felt uneasy. There was no one on the trail. Was someone lurking in the woods? Listening?

“What do we know about Piper?” Ronnie asked. “Like, could someone else have had an issue with her? Another parent, maybe. Someone else who got a note warning them away?”

Andrea remembered something. “I heard her speaking on the phone. I was in her office, waiting to meet, and she was in the parking lot. At one point, she told someone to fuck off, or to go fuck themselves. Then she hung up and just . . . stood there. But by the time she got to the office, it was like nothing was wrong.”

Ronnie raised her eyebrows. “Maybe that’s something? Your meeting was the day before the attack.”