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The next morning, the hiss of air brakes, a sharp creak, then muffled conversation signaled the arrival of the movers.

When Luke went to greet them and get his SUV out of the driveway to give them room for unloading, he froze.

Vernon, who’d come to help, was squatted at Luke’s front bumper, inspecting it.

He turned to Luke.

“Just happened to be looking at your front end, got a little dinged up. What happened here?”

“That. Yeah,” Luke said. “Got hit with debris in that storm a few nights back. It was pretty intense.”

“You going to tend to it? Guys at JB Paint and Body are good.”

“I’ll do it when things get settled.”

Vernon stood, becoming aware that the crew was waiting. “Guess you’ll want to get the show started.”

Unloading went smoothly with Carrie and Luke directing the crew on where to put items. For much of the time, trading off with Carrie, Vernon held Emily or kept her amused out of the way in the yard. The movers finished by early evening, and after Luke gave them each a seventy-five-dollar tip, they climbed into the rig and pulled out.

Most things had been placed well enough for the family to have supper together. Vernon was partial to Chinese food, so Carrie called for a delivery order. She got Emily strapped into her high chair, found plates and cutlery, then set the table. After the order came and they began eating, Carrie nodded to her rocker in the corner.

“Did you see the chair Luke got me, Dad?”

“I noticed.” Vernon looked at it. “What kind of wood?”

“Oak,” Luke said.

“Should last a long time.”

Vernon’s words hung in the air, Carrie and Luke reading the subtext as Vernon reached a hand out to Emily. She took hold of his pinky finger while eating the chicken Carrie had cut up for her off her tray.

“It’s a beautiful chair,” Carrie said. “I love it.”

“Seems to me—” Vernon spooned fried rice from a container “—that you had two cars in California.”

“Luke drove our SUV here, and I sold our small car to a friend in LA just before the move.”

“With the baby and all, you’ll need a second car,” Vernon said.

“We’re going to look for a used one here,” Luke said.

“I’ve got a friend who runs a car lot in town, Randy Ringo’s Auto. He buys late models from rental car companies. I’ll talk to him, see if he’ll give you a deal on a good SUV, if you like?”

Luke and Carrie traded glances.

“That’d be great,” Luke said.

“Consider it done.”

Vernon drank some of his iced tea, then said, “And you were saying you want a home security system installed?”

“I’m looking into that,” Luke said.

“Well, a big local company, Pace-M-Tec, does the schools, businesses, residential. I know the people there and can get someone to come over.”

“If it’s not too much trouble,” Carrie said.

“No trouble. You both have your hands full.”

“All right, that’ll be good, Vern,” Luke said.

“Thanks, Dad,” Carrie said.

Vernon paused eating. “And I think Carrie should have a gun.”

“No, Dad.”

“Because,” Vernon continued, “some folks in this town can’t help thinkin’ what they think about what happened, Carrie. They won’t let it go. Just a precaution.”

“No.”

Looking at her in silence, fear clouded Vern’s eyes.

“I’ve got the spray,” she offered as consolation. “And I’ve got my own cop in the house.”

Vernon nodded, ending the discussion with: “It’s my job to look after you.”

“We know, Dad.”

As they continued eating, Carrie stole subtle glances at her father. His hair had thinned and whitened. For a second, she thought his eyes were tinged with a degree of something she’d seen only twice before. Once, when she’d stared into them after waking in her hospital bed after the attack.

And before that, when she was in school…

…in Mrs. Holbrook’s geography class, where Mrs. Holbrook was guiding everyone while they labeled and completed their charts of the earth’s geological periods. Carrie was detailing the Cenozoic era and the evolution of humans when Mrs. Holbrook said something that had nothing to do with the chart.

“Carrie Hamilton?”

“Yes.”

Mrs. Holbrook asked her to go to the classroom door where Principal Taylor was waiting, her face a mix of sadness and concern. The principal took Carrie’s hand and escorted her to her office, where Carrie’s father stood, his big hat in his hands, his hair slightly mussed, his face creased. She looked into his eyes, which were reddened, clouded with desperation and fear as he lowered himself to her, his voice creaking like it had broken. His Adam’s apple rising and falling as he took her hands, battling to say what he had to say.

“Carrie, sweetheart, this morning your mother…”

He’d hit a wall.

“What about her?” Carrie looked at him, then at Principal Taylor, whose face was a mask of sorrow, then back to her father.

“What about Mom, Daddy?”

“Sweetheart, she’s gone.”

“Gone where?”

“Carrie.” Her father found his voice. “She died. She had a brain seizure and fell down the stairs.”

The principal’s office spun with Carrie’s screams…

Now, as Carrie watched him playing tenderly with Emily’s fingers, she saw it again in his eyes, as brief as a falling star: the desperation and fear for all the things they knew.

But when his eyes crinkled at Emily, they were bright and strong, making Carrie demand answers from heaven on how her father could be dying. It only underscored that it was right for her to move back home and confront whatever waited for her here.

With supper done, Carrie put Emily to bed. Luke and Vernon cleared the table, then they all settled into the sofa and chairs amid the clutter of the living room, talking until night fell and it was time for her dad to leave. Luke brought Vernon his hat, and he gripped Luke’s shoulder warmly, then he hugged Carrie and kissed her cheek.

“I’m glad you’re here,” he said. “I’ll help with everything I can.”

“We know, Dad.”

“Thank you,” Luke said.

Vernon took a long look at them, then left.

***

Sometime in the night, while Luke snored, Carrie heard Emily, awake and fussing in her room.

Carrie dragged herself from bed. In the ambient light she bumped around unpacked boxes, feeling her way in the unfamiliarity of the new house to the kitchen. She prepared a bottle, got Emily, then returned carefully to the living room, sitting in her new rocking chair, absorbing its comfort. Feeding her baby and rocking, Carrie’s weary mind reflected on the last few days and the changes in their lives.

Doubt flared.

It was right to move back.

Her father needed them here for the time he had left.

But every horrible thing in my life happened here, in Clear River County.

Holding her baby and rocking in the dim light, Carrie knew they were coming, she felt them coming, inching at the edges of her memory like wolves in the darkness creeping toward the firelight.

Carrie looked toward the window.

Nothing there but the night.

But in her mind, as if disinterred from the far reaches of memory, she saw them as they were that day.

Erin Eddowes and Abby Hall.