Her eyes drifted to my hands. I could smell the soap from here. “I washed my hands. I didn’t want to get it on Rick’s things.” The truth.

She nodded once, barely perceptible. “Did you feel for a pulse?”

“I don’t remember. I don’t think so. I just started running.”

“For here?”

“Yes.”

“Why’d you run here?”

The open door behind me, in the dark. Instinct carrying me forward—“Something happened to that man, and I was scared.”

“There’ve been animals,” Rick said. “We’ve seen them. Heard them.”

Nina’s head turned swiftly, the first crack in the demeanor. “That was no animal, Mr. Aimes.”

In the silence of the room, I could hear the crackle of a walkietalkie in the distance; the low hum of voices outside; a car door closing. Nina inhaled sharply, turning to face me. “I’d like you to walk me through exactly how you found him.”

I looked to the window. Didn’t understand what she was asking. Hadn’t I just done that?

“From your house,” she added, standing. “Mr. Aimes, I’m going to have someone else come take your full statement. Ms. Meyer, I’d like you to walk me through where you were when you heard the phone. It could help us. Would be good to know whether he was closer to your house at first, or whether he was already incapacitated when you heard it.”

I pushed myself to standing, unable to stop the wince as my leg bent.

A tiny indentation formed in Nina’s forehead. “Are you okay?”

“My knee,” I said. “I cut it.”

“She tripped,” Rick said, and we both stared in his direction.

“Cut it on a root, I think. It’s fine, though. I’m fine.”

EVEN THOUGH OUR HOMES were close, Nina and I were prevented from walking through the border of the property line. “We’re not sure how far the crime scene extends right now,” Nina explained. She turned on her flashlight as we started walking down the long drive to the main road, where we could then cut back to my driveway.

But she immediately turned back, frowning at the way I was walking. “Let’s take my car,” she said. “These driveways are so dark, anyway.”

She led me to her unmarked car, held the passenger door open for me before walking around to the driver’s side.

Up close, Nina Rigby was captivating in her contradictions. Upturned nose and downturned mouth, giving her the simultaneous look of both aloofness and gravity. No makeup, as far as I could tell, but with her hands on the wheel, I saw that her short nails were painted a subtle pink.

Out on the main road, I couldn’t see any other cars—no sign of how another person had arrived. We made a sharp turn into my driveway. Our mailboxes were positioned side by side, the individual driveways diverging from there.

Just as we pulled in past my mailbox, bright lights lit up the space around the crime scene, white and unnatural. I could see gnats swarming in the glare.

There was no car in the driveway but my own.

She turned the car off, and without the headlights, the only glow was from the crime scene, the bushes lit up in an eerie glow between the properties. Shadows of men falling outward, stretching toward us.

“Your house is completely dark,” she said.

“Sorry, I need to get a new bulb for the porch light.”

The car door slammed shut behind her, and by the time I climbed out, she was standing in front of my porch, looking straight ahead.

But she wasn’t waiting for me to enter, I realized. She was staring at the open doorway. The darkness beckoning. She flicked on her flashlight, shining the beam over the front porch, lighting our way. “Did you leave the door that way?”

“I think so,” I said.

She led the way, and I gripped the banister, not wanting to bend my knee more than necessary.

Nina looked back once, frowning at my steps. “You sure you’re okay?”

“Fine. I just don’t want to make it any worse.” But my entire body was on edge, practically thrumming. She could probably hear it in my voice.

Nina stepped to the side at the entrance, like she was waiting for me. But she pushed the door farther open with her foot, shining the flashlight inside. Her shoulders were tense, and for a moment I flashed to all the things that could be waiting here, in the dark.

My hand brushed against the light switches inside, until the living room lit up in an eerie glow. I breathed slowly, taking it in. The couch and the cushions, just as I’d left them. No evidence of someone else who had been here with me. But the air was cooler, from the front door left open. “Okay if I take a quick look around first?” she asked, and I nodded. Maybe she’d come back with me to make sure no one was hiding out here. To make sure it was safe.

Nina walked slowly around me, her footsteps echoing on the hardwood. I followed behind to each room, still barefoot and dirty, my toes curling on the cool floor. She flicked another light in the hallway. Then the kitchen light, with the faucet left dripping. Next, the office, messy and barely used.

The only place she didn’t search was upstairs, the steps hidden away behind the door in the hall that looked like a coat closet.

She stopped at the entrance to my bedroom, flicking on the last light. “You heard the phone from here? From inside?”

It was colder in here, and I felt a gust before I saw the reason: The window beside the bed was ajar, the sheer shades billowing in. Nina strode across the room, pushing apart the shades—ignoring the unmade bed next to the window, and my phone, faceup on the bedside table.

I didn’t remember opening the window. But I didn’t remember making it out of the house, either. Maybe it was that familiar dream, pushing back against the four walls . . . maybe I wanted to see a way out.

She leaned closer, her head to the place where a screen should be. “I can hear them talking,” she said, half to herself.

Now that she mentioned it, I could hear it, too, the voices at the crime scene carrying in the wind. I could’ve heard a phone.

My own phone buzzed on the nightstand. Nina saw it first and frowned. “Kind of late for a text,” she said.

And then, just as she reached for it, it started ringing. She picked it up, held it out for me, and I knew from the photo lighting up the display—the call was coming from Jonah’s cell.

I froze, and it rang a second time. Was it one of the officers outside, calling back the last-known number? Would I have to face it right now, with Nina watching?

“Gonna take it?” she asked, practically placing it in my hand. The skin around my knee pulled as I sat on the edge of the bed.

I fumbled the buttons twice before answering, and held the phone to my ear. “Hello?” I held my breath, could hear my heartbeat inside my head.

“Liv, I know it’s late and you were probably sleeping, but I have to say this—”

My breath escaped in a rush, everything unspooling inside me. “Jonah?” I looked up at Nina, who was frowning. His name was on the display. Of course it was Jonah. “Where are you?”

“That’s what I’m trying to say, if you would give me a minute.” His voice was slurred, the words tripping over one another. “In my office, trying to make sense of this shit schedule I’ve been given. Trying to see how I could make it work.”