“Where are you? Is someone else dead?” There was a catch in her voice. “Is it a child?”

Sighing, he broke down and told her. Patty had been making plans to pick up Sue, Jillian and Shannon from school and then drop them off at Shannon’s house for an hour or so while she met with new clients, but when she learned what had happened, she told him that she and the girls would be going straight home after school. “I’m not letting them out of my sight,” she said.

Good, he thought.

There was a pause. “What’s going on?” Patty asked finally. Her voice was low, hushed, frightened. “All these people are…dying. Here. In Montgomery. I mean, I’ve never heard of anything like this before anywhere, not even on the news. Never! That mass murder or suicide or whatever it was with the people from the bank? That’s Ripley’s Believe It or Not stuff. It just doesn’t happen. Not just here. Anywhere!”

“You’re right,” he agreed.

Her voice dropped again. “I want you to be careful.”

“I will. I always am.”

“But more than usual. This isn’t normal. Things like this don’t happen.”

He was touched by her concern. “I will,” he promised. Norris stepped into the laundry room doorway, motioning for Brad to come with him. “I have to go. I’ll be home as soon as I can.”

“Call me if you’re going to be late.”

“I will.”

“Love you.”

“You too. Bye.” Clicking off, he met his deputy’s eyes. “What is it?”

“You’ve got to see this.”

“You found something?” They were already walking.

“In the kid’s room, like you said.”

Brad followed him through the middle doorway of the hall, where Vern was standing next to a twin bed. On the floor in front of him was something Brad could not have imagined.

He stared at it, eyes widening.

“Jesus.”

3

When Nick awoke in the morning and heard the TV in the living room, heard his parents’ voices in the kitchen, saw sunlight streaming into his room from between the slats of his windowshades, he could almost believe that none of it had happened, that he had dreamed it all and this was just a normal Saturday. But when he checked his phone and saw that he had twenty messages, he knew that it had not been just a figment of his imagination. He scrolled through the messages, searching for one that was from a genuine friend and not just a curious acquaintance. Sent less than ten minutes ago was a text from Aaron, three simple words: Is it true?