Stepping from the car, Lisa double-checked to ensure each door, including the hatch, was locked. She’d studied some self-defense tips online. Taking care to be vigilant had become second nature. She scanned the parking lot in every direction. Heading to the mall entrance, she kept a tight grip on her bag with one hand. The other was closed in a fist around her longest key, the sharp edge sticking out near her pinkie.

Ready to stab flesh and hit bone.

It was Monday afternoon. She’d risen super early that morning, dived into her work, saw Jeff off. Did he even know I was there? His nose was glued to his phone during most of breakfast. After he’d left, Lisa resumed toiling full bore, getting another huge chunk of the emerging-diseases job done so she could get to the mall.

It felt good getting out, being among people. Today was another step toward regaining confidence and control. Still, she wondered again about Jeff and considered his recent demeanor, like how when they’d first moved to Palm Mirage Creek, he’d get up in the night to work.

He’d even go out for a walk or a solitary drive, be gone for a few hours.

“I’m just wound up about everything,” he’d told her.

At times, when Lisa took a sleeping pill, she wouldn’t know if he’d gone out or had a sleepwalking episode. Then she thought about how Jeff had behaved over the years. Yes, he’d had a hard life and would sink into moods where he’d become quiet, pensive, withdrawn.

Or guarding some secret.

In his professional life, he always seemed to be under pressure, always traveling to conferences or making presentations to clients. Because he was often up at all hours and going out in the middle of the night, there was a time when Lisa had jokingly called him The Vampire. But after sensing that he didn’t like it, she’d stopped. And in the last year or so, before they’d left Cleveland, Jeff was having a hard time with some people at his office. He’d never elaborated, only hinting at it. Just the other night, he’d said, “I was covering for people, carrying people.”

And now Lisa believed that Jeff was troubled by something, and that as his wife, she knew him, knew instinctively that something was going on.

She pushed it all aside as she meandered through the furniture showroom, glancing around warily at other customers, especially men.

He’s still out there.

After browsing for a time, she decided she liked several sets, a sectional with ivory fabric, then a leather three-seater with recliners and small chrome-plated features that gave it an art-deco look. The last was a cream-colored sofa, love seat and chair collection with a soft floral pattern.