“No!” Marlene shouted into the phone, snapping Janie’s attention back. Her mother’s eyes widened; one hand gripped the back of a chair. It scraped on the floor as she pulled it out and eased herself into it. Listening, her free hand trembling over her mouth, her face filled with fear and tears came.

“Oh dear God. Oh dear God!” Marlene said, her frightened eyes bulging, staring at Janie. “My daughter was in that house. She babysat for them!”

Janie stared at her mother, shaking inside.

Marlene listened for several moments, before finally saying, “Yes, yes, at the club later, whatever you’d like, Lila, of course.”

The call ended and Janie’s mother sat frozen in silence staring at nothing, as if the world had ceased to make sense.

“Mom, what’s going on?”

A moment passed.

“Mom?”

Her mother’s eyes searched for the source of the question, finding Janie, looking at her, then searching for the words.

“That was Lila Skripchuck at the restaurant. She just told me that Mr. Tullock, his wife and—” she choked back a sob “—Linda and Neal were all—” Her hands flew to her face. “They’re all dead. They were murdered… Oh God!”

Janie froze as the earth under her feet shifted.

Her mother flew to her, taking her into her arms.

“This isn’t real,” her mother said. “This can’t be!”

Janie’s face turned white. She was motionless. Her mother gripped her shoulders and searched her eyes.

“Janie, are you okay?”

Silent and numb, Janie stared at nothing.

As her mother held her, Janie began trembling and shaking with intensity until she was almost convulsing as a guttural sob swirled in the pit of her stomach, clawing upward before escaping.

As if to silence Janie’s grief, her mother crushed her to her chest, staring at the ceiling, asking over and over: “Dear God, who did this? Who could do such an evil thing?”

“Marie?”

Standing with her mother in the bakery aisle of Eternity Market Mart, Marie was gripping the shopping cart and staring at nothing.

“We need two loaves of whole wheat. They’re on your side there.”

Marie’s mother—whose face was etched in sorrow since Pike’s death, making her look older—pointed but Marie didn’t move.

“Hello, Earth to Marie.”

Marie didn’t respond until her mother nudged her. Then, as if waking, Marie looked around until her mother looked from the list in her hand, repeated her request and pointed.

“Two whole wheat.”

Marie placed the bread in the cart and they continued to the next aisle.

“Honey, what’s wrong? You asked to come with me.”

“Nothing.”

“No, you’ve been kind of out of it recently, like a zombie. Are you feeling okay?”

Marie nodded slowly, thinking how after Pike her mother was often out of it herself.

“Well, what is it? We need mayo, the big jar there.”