And her repeated note—MW?—kept haunting me. The way she was tracking Margo made me nervous. Like I was missing something.
I wanted to know whose privacy Ruby had invaded. Who might’ve had something to hide back then—and something still worth keeping hidden.
At the corner, I circled back to the front of the street, turning up the path to Tina’s house. Not worried about being seen at the Monahan house—What would I need a security camera for, Officer?—as I walked up their front steps, hand on the keys in my pocket.
I planned to check quickly. Slip the key into the lock and turn, before heading away. Pretend I was just knocking, and no one had answered, with Tina at the store and her parents out back.
I gripped the ring of keys in my hand, sliding the one marked M into the lock—
The front door swung open with force, dislodging the key, still tight in my grasp. Mrs. Monahan stood in the entrance, wide-eyed and friendly. “I thought I saw you heading up the steps, dear,” she said. “It’s been so long since we talked!”
My hand dropped quickly to my side as I attempted to hide the entire ring of keys in my closed fist. “It has,” I said, pasting a friendly smile onto my face. I could hear my own heartbeat echoing in my skull. Feel it pounding against my ribs. The fear. The rush. The thrill of coming so close—
“Is Tina home?” I asked, dropping the keys back in my pocket.
“No, she’s picking up food. But we could use your help if you have a minute. Come,” she said, not waiting for my response.
I found myself following her deeper into the house, passing the kitchen, through the living room, to the back door, left ajar.
“George is stuck,” she said, peering over her shoulder as she opened the back door to the patio.
“I’m not stuck,” he said from the edge of the wooden patio ramp. He frowned when he saw me, like he’d been expecting someone else. It was the same look he’d given me when I ran into him and Tina during my watch shift. The only thing he’d asked me then was if Ruby was back.
“He is so stuck,” Mrs. Monahan whispered.
Mr. Monahan’s wheelchair was wedged at the base of the wooden ramp. The bottom lip of the ramp looked like it had broken or chipped, and it seemed neither could maneuver the front wheels up the incline.
“Chase said he was going to help us fix the ramp this weekend, but I think he got distracted. Understandably. But it’s gotten worse, and I can’t quite manage it on my own,” Mrs. Monahan said.
“No problem,” I said, heading down to the base of the patio. I leveraged the seat back and then forward, easing it over the start of the wooden ramp.
“There we go,” Mrs. Monahan said, following us inside.
“Chase was going to come?” I asked.
“Oh, yes, he helps out a lot. Whenever Tina isn’t around. He’s a good man, that one.”
I wasn’t sure she’d agree if she knew everything that had happened during the trial. If she understood that he was under internal investigation, that his hand in the case had tainted everything.
“Do you want something to drink while you wait, dear?” she asked as Mr. Monahan moved farther down the hall, toward the dining room at the front of the house.
“No, thank you, I’m sure I’ll catch up to her later—”
“That girl is back,” Mr. Monahan said, eyes narrowed at the dining room windows, facing the front yard.
A shudder rolled through me. The same thing he’d said when I was out on watch that night, when he was with Tina, asking if that girl was back home.
“What?” I said. I turned, expecting to see the ghost of Ruby. If anyone could return, fake her own death, convince us she was gone when she was really still here, it would be her. I caught a streak of dark hair—a blur at the edge of the window—and then it was gone.
He grunted. “She thinks she’s so clever. Hugs the front porches so the cameras don’t catch her, so no one will see her. But we do. We see her.” He moved closer to the window, and I stepped beside him, peering out.
“George, don’t make trouble,” Mrs. Monahan called. He waved off his wife, though she couldn’t see him.
“Who was that?” I asked.
He shrugged. “One of Charlotte’s girls. She figured the trick,” he said, eyes narrowed as he kept watching. “Stay close enough, and the motion lights don’t catch you, the cameras look right past you.” He shook his head. That girl back? he’d asked just after one of Charlotte’s daughters had been dropped off at home—not asking about Ruby at all.