“I’ve only known since Tuesday. He must have followed us to the station and then the rental-car office. He followed me to Melissa’s. I came out and there he was, across the road. Smoking. I haven’t seen him since.”

“Why didn’t you tell the police? And what’s Kate Zilber got to do with it?”

“I told you—he used to hang around at school. I assumed he was one of the dads, there to pick up his kids, but Kate says there’s no parent who fits that description. I believe her. She’d know if there was. I asked her to ask some of the other parents if they’d noticed him, or his car registration. I was so shocked when I saw him outside Melissa’s on Tuesday, I didn’t think to look at it.”

“You didn’t answer my first question,” Adam says impatiently. “Why didn’t you mention any of this to Sergeant Zailer?”

“Because . . .” I breathe. “Grim though they are, I don’t want to get my family into trouble. Not that that’d happen necessarily. Is it illegal to hire someone to tail your sister, or your daughter? It probably isn’t.”

Adam rolls his eyes. “Nicki, you’re not seriously suggesting—”

“Who else?” I twist in my seat to face him properly. “Who else would bother to pay a stooge to follow me around—me, an irrelevant housewife that no one’s heard of? Only my parents and my brother have ever taken an unhealthy interest in my day-to-day behavior. Of course they’re behind it.”

“I think this is dangerous paranoia, Nicki.”

“I know. Because you don’t understand how it felt to be me, in my childhood.” I hide behind a bright fake smile. “It’s OK. Actually, it’s character-building. I didn’t get where I am today by being understood.”

They didn’t break me. You can’t either.

Defeated, Adam shakes his head. “All right,” he says quietly. “Kate Zilber’s house. What’s the address?”

“Gunstool Road. Number 31.”

“So what’s the plan? Why do you want to try and find out more about this guy, his car registration? I thought you said you hadn’t seen him since Tuesday.”

I’m good at answering neutrally and fully without revealing how I feel about the question I’m responding to. “I haven’t. So either he’s being more subtle now that he knows I’m onto him, or he’s stopped following me. Either way, I’d like to know who he is and who hired him. I’d like to find out for myself.”

“Is there any point in me trying to—”

“No.”