Rose held Nora tighter.
“You saw him last week?”
“I thought I did.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Nora looked guilty for the first time.
“I didn’t want to scare you if I was wrong.”
Rose touched her face.
“You do not have to protect me from information.”
Nora nodded.
Lucas looked away.
That sentence hurt for reasons Rose did not know.
You do not have to protect me from information.
If Lily’s teacher had believed that, perhaps Lucas’s life would have been different.
The intruder was taken into custody.
The deputies seized the laptop, phones, backpack, maps, photos, camera, and storage-room footage.
Before the man was placed in the cruiser, he looked over his shoulder toward Miller.
“You don’t know what game you’re in.”
Miller did not answer.
That seemed to bother him.
The cruiser left.
Everyone assumed the worst part was over.
Nora did not.
She stood near the workbench staring at the floor beneath the table where deputies had processed the backpack.
Then she crouched.
Lucas noticed.
“What are you doing?”
She reached beneath a cabinet and picked up something no larger than a thumbnail.
A small black earpiece.