Chapter 9: Her Mother's Lawn

Erin's POV

Mama put a kettle on, because she didn't know what else to do with her hands.

I sat at her kitchen table with Bean on my chest.

I told her all of it, from the garage to the closet.

My mother listened without interrupting.

When I got to Gwen, she set down her mug so carefully that it didn't make a sound.

"And him?" she said, tilting her head toward the front room.

"He heard the recording. He got her out of that house. He took a slap on the lawn."

"That's the least he did all week."

"I know, Mama."

"I mean it."

"I know."

Ryan came in from the porch with a gray face and told us what Hal had said on the phone.

"He's Gwen's," he said. "He knows we're here. He's coming back, and it won't be at noon."

"Then we go out the back," I said.

"I'll get the car."

He had made it to the doorway when the sirens started, thin and far off, then closer.

Mama went to the window and pulled back the curtain.

"Two patrol cars," she said. "And a white sedan with a county seal. And Hal."

I looked down at my daughter. She was asleep with her hand on my collarbone.

"Erin," Ryan said, very low. "The back door."

"They'll have someone on it."

"Then I'll talk to him."

"Ryan." I stood up. "Don't go out there alone."

He went out anyway, and shut the door.

I carried Bean to the front window beside my mother and watched.

The whole street had come out.

The man with the tomatoes was there, and the woman in running shoes, and the little girl on her bicycle.

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