Chapter Nine

Epilogue Adora was found guilty of murder in the first degree for what she did to Marian.

Chapter Seventeen On May 28, Adora Crellin was arrested for the murders of Ann Nash, Natalie Keene, and Marian Crellin.

Chapter Sixteen I fell asleep without the fan on, woke up with the sheets stuck to me. My own sweat and urine. Teeth chattering and my heartbeat thumping behind my eyeballs.

Chapter Fifteen Three little pink bikes were lined up on the porch, bedecked with white wicker baskets, ribbons streaming off the handlebars.

Chapter Fourteen I nearly tumbled down Jackie’s steps, my legs were so wobbly. Behind my back I could hear her boys chanting the Calhoon football rally. I drove around the corner, parked under a copse of mulberry treees, and rested my head against the wheel.

Chapter Thirteen It was past two when I woke, my stomach coiled in on itself, my jaw aching from grinding my teeth for five hours straight. Fucking X.

Chapter Ten “I’m sorry she came here, because now she’s dead,” said a weeping John Keene, 18, of his younger sister Natalie, 10.

Chapter Nine I fell asleep, accidentally and hard, at nine o’clock, woke to an angry sun at seven the next morning. A dried-out tree rustled its branches against my window screen as if it wanted to climb in next to me for comfort.

Chapter Eight Amma. All this time I’d had little real interest in her. Now I did. What I saw at the farm kept my throat clenched.

Chapter Seven Once I was standing on a cold corner in Chicago waiting for the light to change when a blind man came clicking up.