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“Nice to see you, too,” I said and sat down at the kitchen table without being invited to. I was tired and didn’t care. The coffee had helped a little, but by this point, it wouldn’t last long. “I’ve been dealing with the aftermath of a car crash. Care to fill me in on that?”

When she had to think about that a moment, I knew she had gone into lockdown mode. She didn’t need her friend’s subtle shake of the head to guide her there, either. It was generally difficult to get answers out of her, despite Gerard telling her to. This reminded me of my questions regarding Freddy Miller. She had gone quiet on the subject at once, refusing to say anything on the matter.

“I don’t think there’s anything to say,” she began, and I stopped her by raising a hand. She narrowed her eyes at the gesture but did stop talking.

“Listen,” I said, “I saw you kill Thomás a few hours ago. Do you really think a car accident’s what’s going to get you in trouble?”

Apparently, she had to think about that, too. It seemed she fell back into her community’s way of thinking about the police every time we were separated for two seconds.

“How did you find me?” she asked instead of answering me.

“That’s not rel—”

“If you answer that, I’ll tell you.”

“Oh my God,” Ms. Byers said and rolled her eyes at this back and forth.

“Fine,” I said, hoping Evans would keep to her word. It had been easy once I could connect the dots through the knowledge of their world. According to Evans, there weren’t that many of them in town. She had been buying food for two and heading in the direction of Ms. Byers’ place the day after the shooting. And Mr. Withers had been speaking the truth, hadn’t he?

“No offense,” Evans said when I finished speaking, “but you would make a hell of a stalker.”

I looked at her a moment. “How am I not supposed to be offended by that?”

“I only tell that damn cat of his to piss off,” Ms. Byers said. “It keeps following me.”

“What?” I said.

“Tegan’s not…fond of animals,” Evans explained. “But they’re drawn to her.”

I blinked. “Wait, so the cat loves you even though you tell it to go away?”

Ms. Byers still looked at me with skepticism in her eyes. She glanced at Evans a moment, looking for confirmation that I knew about everything, before answering.

“Something like that,” she said.

“Seems her ability to control them turns the animals somewhat masochistic in nature,” Evans added. “The cat keeps coming back after all.”

I shook my head and closed my eyes a moment. So many weird things were happening. I needed to focus on what was most important at the moment.

The kidnapping.

“What happened in the car?”

She looked down a moment. “Okay. I know I fucked up, all right? But he looked at me. I heard him—”

“Maggie,” Ms. Byers exclaimed, shocked that I knew about her thought-reading thing.

“You heard what?” I pressed, getting Evans to continue.

“You know,” she said. “He was going to trap me. So I…just reacted. I grabbed at the wheel. I didn’t mean for the car to crash. I wanted to distract him. I only wanted to stop him from doing that to me.”

Her face was a blank mask now, but I believed her. I had seen her after she had drowned the bastard at the hospice. She had looked upset about her actions, and nervously at me. Not only because I worked for the police. She didn’t want to be judged for that. When Michael had been freed from his entrapment, I had understood why she’d done it. She had looked so relieved at the sight of the kid moving. After being trapped like that myself, I knew all too well what Thomás’ victims had been through. I couldn’t judge her for making that choice. I still felt bad for her, though.

“Okay,” I said. “I get it.”

She raised an eyebrow at that, looking at me like she didn’t believe me.

“You did what you had to do,” I added and gave a slight shrug.

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