The detective game collapses. I see it for what it is, a game for kids like Skylar and me back in the days of our first tree house and Nancy Drew and all that. The only mystery here is who the people are and why they meet at the dead end of Marie Drive in the worst part of Evansburg.

But still, I’m sad to let the spy theory go. It’s like we’re losing something, Skylar and me.

The SUV’s passenger door flies open and the woman practically jumps out. The man says something in a low, angry voice. She shouts, “Leave me alone!”

Instead of getting into her car, she sets out across the field toward the woods. She takes short, fast steps, her shoulders tense, the way people walk when they’re mad. I video her until she’s a dot on the screen, too small to identify.

I expect the man to run after her, but he just sits in the SUV. He doesn’t even call after her. Maybe he thinks she’ll see that she’s wrong and come back. Suddenly he starts the SUV, does a U-turn, and drives away so fast the tires spray dust and gravel.

“He’s really mad,” Skylar whispers.

“So is she. It must have been a major fight.”

“Let’s follow her, make sure she’s okay. He might have hit her or something.” Skylar scoots down the tree, with me close behind her. We run after the woman, but before we’re halfway across the field, she disappears into the woods.

We stop to catch our breath. “What should we do?” I ask Skylar. “She might not like us coming after her, asking what’s wrong and is she all right. She doesn’t even know us—she might think we’re nosy, like it’s none of our business.”

Skylar pushes her hair out of her face. “Maybe she needs to be by herself till she calms down. That’s how I’d feel if I just had a big fight with my boyfriend.”

We walk back across the field, slower now, feeling the heat. We look in the gray car’s side window. The pink hoodie lies on the seat just like before. The yoga bag is on the floor behind the driver’s seat. The art book is gone.

“She didn’t take her phone,” Skylar says. “Or her purse.”

Sure enough, the phone’s in plain sight on the console between the front seats, and the purse is on the floor on the passenger side.

“That’s weird,” I say. “She always takes her purse when she gets in the SUV.”

“Maybe she was too mad to think about anything but having it out with him,” Skylar says. “Maybe she was going to break up with him if he didn’t leave his wife and marry her. She could even be pregnant.”