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“I didn’t think you were.”

“I mean about him being well.”

Katie said nothing to that. While she was prepared to believe her brother had reappeared, she was far more skeptical about him no longer using. But her mother had never given up on Chris, even though Katie had watched her heart break a hundred times over the years. She was a proud woman, and always seemed inured to it when the inevitable occurred—when Chris relapsed and then drifted out of contact until the next time he needed something. Katie was worried for her sake that this was going to be another example of history repeating itself. However proud you might be, there are only so many times a heart can break and mend.

“It was properlyhim,” her mother said. “He seemed so happy and together. Not like he used to be. Like he wasmeantto be.”

“Where had he been all this time?” Katie said.

“He didn’t want to talk about it. I respected that.”

“Okay, then. What did he want?”

“Just to see me. Is that so hard to believe?”

“No,” Katie lied. “What happened next?”

“He kept calling round.”

Twice a week, her mother told her, and always at the same times, which Chris had claimed fitted in with his work schedule. Which was new. As far as Katie was aware, her brother had never held down a legitimate job for any length of time, but the details of his employment were another mystery her mother had respected. Regardless, Chris hadn’t asked her for money and didn’t seem to want anything beyond reconnecting with her. The puzzle on the table had been a present from him, she said. There had been one day he’d wanted to look through some old photographs, and he’d had it made afterward from photos she’d let him take away.

“Why didn’t you tell me he was back?”

Her mother hesitated, and Katie leaned forward.

“Mom?”

“Because he didn’twantyou to know.”

She was gracious enough to allow Katie a moment of silence then, and not to mention that the last time she’d seen Chris had been when she called the police on him. But Katie thought about that anyway, and the sadness of it all ran through her. Had Chris hidden from her out of shame because of what he’d done? Was he angry with her for reporting him to the police? Or had he simply assumed it wasshewho wouldn’t want to seehim, and had decided to spare himself the pain of facing that?

Regardless, it hurt badly that the two of them had come to this. There had been so much love between them once.

Katie took a deep breath.

“Okay,” she said. “What makes you think he’s in trouble?”

“He’s gone missing again. He didn’t turn up yesterday.”

Katie’s heart sank at that, but her mother put up her hand.

“I know what you’re thinking. I know what a stupid and foolish old woman you think I am.”

“Oh, Mom.” She closed her eyes for a moment. “I really don’t.”

“Yes, you do—youdo, Katie. And perhaps you’re right. But it’s different this time. He’s not answering the number he gave me; I think his phone is switched off. And the last couple of weeks, he’s been acting strangely.”

“Strangely how?”

“Like he was looking over his shoulder the whole time. Like he was scared of something. Orsomeone.”

That seemed likely to Katie. Even if she took her mother’s word for it that Chris was no longer using in the present, he certainly had the kind of past from which people might emerge to haunt him.

“Yes.” She sighed. “It’s certainly possible he was scared of someone.”

“Like him,” her mother said. “That monster.”

Katie looked at her.