“Looks like the crime-watch people. I’m sure one of them is Roland Dillard. I’m going out there. Stay here. I’ll be right back.”

She watched Jeff approach the men. She cracked the window. Scratchy bursts of police radio chatter made it difficult for her to comprehend the parts of the conversation that drifted up from the street. Jeff nodded as the men and officer pointed here and there. Then everyone shook his hand, and he waved to them and returned to the house.

One of the men looked up at the window, directly at Lisa. She recognized him as Dillard. He gave her a friendly wave. She waved back.

“What’s up?” she asked after Jeff returned and undressed for bed.

“It was Dillard on the watch patrol with some other guy, Jed Purcell. They were just talking with the cop who told me they may have new leads on our suspect.”

“Good. I feel better with Dillard’s posse out there.”

“He asked me again to join the watch patrol.”

“Are you going to?”

“Yes, I told him I would.”

“Really? With everything you’ve got going?”

“I thought about how he helped us with the system, how our neighbors are out there, you know, everyone doing their part. He’s going to talk to me about how it all works in a couple days.”

“Officer Jeff Taylor on the beat.” She got into bed, wrapped her arms around him. “It’s kind of a turn-on.”

He hugged her. “I’m sorry about tonight,” he said. “I need to be more understanding of what you’re going through.”

“I’ll get control of things.”

“We’ll start a family. I promise.”

She kissed him. He kissed her back.

“You know, we could practice right now,” she said, reaching for him.

Lisa woke. It was nearly 2:00 a.m.

She turned, having expected to hear Jeff snoring, which he always did after sex. His side of the bed was empty.

She looked to the bathroom. Empty, too.

Jeff was gone.

She got up to look for him, pulling on her new robe, switching on the lights and padding down the stairs. Jeff was in the living room, sitting on the sofa. She approached him, but he didn’t acknowledge her or react. His eyes were glassy and open, staring at nothing, with his arms at his side like a zombie.

She’d seen this before—he was having a sleepwalking episode.

It happened a few times a year. She knew that the best thing to do was leave him alone and go back to bed. She was a little uneasy doing that now, but she was tired and decided to head back upstairs. She’d just managed to fall back asleep when she was awakened again.

Jeff had returned to bed, but now his side of the room was awash in the light of his phone.

He was wide-awake, tense as he scrolled.