She sprinted through the alley between Snyder’s and Novus and up to the edge of the fields. Doors were opening and people were calling to her. She screamed at them to get the sheriff, her baby had been taken. As she went to run into the fields, she felt hands on her shoulders. Mr. Talhausen pulled up the fallen straps of her nightdress, and a moment later she felt his jacket go around her. Other people were surrounding her now, including her mother.

“Lew took Baby,” she said. “He’s got my baby.”

Annie sat in her parents’ kitchen, surrounded by women, the first light of dawn seeping into the room. What she was feeling was like a day of heat lightning: numbness with abrupt flashes of panic or fury. She had stood up a few times, her body needing to do something, but a soft wave of women would instantly overwhelm her, washing her back into her seat. The fury was at herself for letting Baby be snatched like that. She should have closed the door, gone home to make the phone call, fought harder. She had the bizarre impulse to run up to her apartment and try even now to break through the front door, so she could be sure it wasn’t possible. And all at once these feelings, as if her spine had melted, would dissolve, and she would be sure that Baby was dead. Outside, on Main, she could hear vehicles gathering, men shouting.

Ruth appeared, Raj behind her with his rifle. Getting up, she took hold of them both.

“Is it Lew?” Raj asked.

She nodded. “He came last night. He’s naked.”

“Naked?” Ruth said.

“He had a bath. I cleaned him up. He just ran out.”

Again the women softly overwhelmed her and she found herself back in the chair. Of all things, someone had baked muffins and her mom was trying to get her to eat one. She shook her head.

Raj leaned down to her. “I’m going in the back of Otto’s truck with a bunch of the others. We’re heading to his dad’s place first; maybe he’s gone back there. Then we’re going to fan out into the woods.”

As he left, her mom tried to get her to eat some of the muffin again. The warm, fresh-baked smell of it sickened her. She couldn’t just sit around, waiting. She got up, pushing away the women who tried to take hold of her, and joined Raj and a half dozen other men in the truck bed.

“It’s my baby,” she declared, glancing around fiercely, though none of the men had said anything. “I’m not going to stay here.”

Raj was looking with concern down at her feet, which were still bare. She pulled Mr. Talhausen’s jacket more tightly around her shoulders.

Finally the little convoy of trucks and cars pulled out. It was already eight, a beautiful clear day. When they arrived at the Tivots’, the front door was open. Siggy hammered on the jamb and entered. Bennet waited just outside, his rifle at the ready.