It wasn’t until I got off the exit closest to home, begging the indifferent universe just to let me get there, promising in return that this was really over, this time for sure, I would stop chasing shadows, willing myself into my house, into my own bed, imagining myself pressed against Jep’s sturdy, warm, inert back, that I remembered Esme’s text. I’ll be there in ten minutes, she had typed.

I began to pant. I scrabbled for my phone.

Nothing.

I had left her there. I had left Esme to pull into that deserted scrap of pavement, all alone, looking for me, where he waited.

9

When I hit my own driveway, it was late. Except for a small light in the upstairs hall, one we always left burning, the house was dark. On a street suddenly as still as a canyon, I got the willies. I actually missed the protestors. When I called Stefan’s cell, it went over to voice mail. Jep...same thing. Pulling into the garage, I let the door close behind me and summoned my courage, getting out briskly and opening the door to the kitchen, pushing my purse and the box of documents inside.

“Molly!” I called.

The dog didn’t come running. She would have come running, acting as though she hadn’t seen me in ten years instead of less than a day. This was the part in the scary movie when the person trips over the mutilated body of the dog. That did it for me. I slammed the door and turned on all the lights. If somebody had killed Molly, that somebody would reap the whirlwind. I heard her then. She was scratching at the back door. She was outside in the yard. Somebody had let her out and left her out there. I didn’t know for how long, but she was thirsty, giving me only a cursory greeting before heading toward her water bowl.

Who had done that?

Jep or Stefan...never. Jep and Stefan treated Molly with more regard than they did most people, and they were nice to most people.

Who had left Molly outside? I knew the doors were locked. The fussy slider downstairs was long since fixed. Who had been in our house and how?

I sent Stefan a text, asking if he had let Molly out. Jep too. Jep answered that Molly was not outside, that must be asleep upstairs and our bedroom door just got closed on her. Let her out before she gets all excited and pees, he wrote. A second later, he wrote, U do ok? U ok now?

I told him I was fine.

Who put Molly outside?