Every room on the first floor of the house glowed, casting yellow light out onto the lawn and against the trunks of the trees in the yard. The same was true in every room upstairs, except for Henry’s, which was dark, the blinds closed.

And a police car sat in the driveway, blocking my way.

I froze in place behind the wheel, my thoughts swirling like a swarm of insects.

Amanda. Henry. What had happened?

I parked at the curb and jumped out, starting for the house and slamming the driver’s-side door behind me. I forgot everything that had happened, driven forward only by my desire to know that Amanda and Henry were okay.

I ran across the lawn, the dew cold and wet kicking up against my shins, and I yanked open the back door and went into the brightly lit kitchen, where Amanda was leaning against the counter, wearing a light jacket over her sweatshirt and yoga pants as though she was about to go somewhere. She’d exchanged the flip-flops for running shoes.

“What’s happening?” I asked. “Are you okay? Is Henry?”

“It’s about time you got here,” she said. “The police were just leaving.”

“The police?”

I’d been so intently focused on Amanda that I hadn’t looked around the kitchen to see the two uniformed cops standing on the other side of the room. I turned to them, and they both looked back, their faces solemn, their silver badges glinting under the lights.

I faced the cops but asked Amanda, “Is Henry okay?”

“He’s fine,” she said, calm as anything. The eye of the storm. “We’re both fine. You can relax.”

“Then why . . . ?”

My mind raced to another place, somewhere it hadn’t gone since I pulled up behind the house. Were the police there for me? Had they learned I was in Jennifer’s house earlier? Had Blake told them something?

My heart, which had been a block of ice since I’d pulled up, started beating again. I didn’t care. Better me than Amanda or Henry. As long as they were okay, I didn’t care.

“I called them,” Amanda said.

“To find me?”

“No.” She moved to the window above the kitchen sink and turned that light off. She pressed her face against the glass. “What did you see out there?”

“Out where?”

“In the yard.” She pointed out, her face still against the glass. “I heard someone out there. Just ten or fifteen minutes ago. That’s why all the lights are on. That’s why I’m up. And dressed. I thought I might have to grab Henry and run. That’s when I called them and they came. It’s crazy.”

“What did you hear?”

“Sir?” one of the cops said. He was tall, with a goatee, and had razor burn along his neck. “Your wife called us because she thought she heard someone outside. A possible burglar.”