He glanced at the muted TV. “Can we watch a movie?”

“I guess. Was there one in particular you wanted to see?”

“Doesn’t matter.” As she went to pick up the remote, he said, “What are we going to do?”

“What do you mean?”

“Are we going home?”

She put the remote back down on the coffee table.

“I . . . I don’t know. What do you want to do? Do you want to go home? Because if you’d like that, that would be okay.”

Make it seem like his idea, she thought, even though I’m ready to leave right this second.

“I don’t know,” he said. “Let’s talk about it tomorrow?”

“Sure. We could do that. Sleep on it.”

Charlie nodded. “And can I take home the bike?”

“Uh, let me think about that.”

“And the trains?”

Annie thought about the lie she had been formulating earlier. About how to get rid of those fucking toy trains.

“I don’t think we can do that,” she said.

“Why not?”

“I had a call. The people who used to live here. They didn’t call me, but they called the lady, the one we got the place from? And then she got in touch with me. When those people moved out, they forgot to take that box of trains with them. So we’re going to have to pack them up so they can be shipped to wherever they live now.”

Charlie stared at her.

“What?” she said.

“They really said that?” he asked.

Annie wondered whether she had a tell. A facial tic, something Charlie could read in her expression that would give her away, that he would spot and know she was lying.

“Yes,” she said.

He nodded slowly. “Oh well,” he said. “They were fun to play with while I had them.”

Annie smiled. “When we get home, we’ll look into replacing them. A brand-new train set. What do you think about that?”

“I guess.”

If he was excited, Annie thought, he was doing a good job of hiding it. But at least he didn’t fight her. She believed that by tomorrow he’d be on board with leaving. If it weren’t for the fact that she hated driving at night—even if Sherpa would be happy to guide her—she’d pack up the car and go right now.

She’d just put Charlie to bed when she heard a car pulling up to the house. When Annie went out onto the porch, Candace was getting out of her car.

“It’s just so awful,” Candace said, standing at the foot of the porch steps, then stepping up onto the first one.

Annie did not feel inclined to invite her in and stood at the center of the top step, as though blocking the woman’s path.

“Yes,” Annie said.

“The police came to see me. It’s all my fault.”

Annie waited.