Skyden sat on her bed, computer in her lap. She felt her watch vibrate. She slid the frayed cuff of her hoodie up her forearm and winced at another notification from the backyard security camera.

Cam came out of the bathroom, phone in his hand. "I'm okay with turning off these notifications if you are." He checked his phone. "Unless you'd miss the never-ending—"

"Interruptions?" Skyden said.

"That's not the word I'd use."

Skyden closed her laptop. "The installer said you can adjust the camera sensitivity and range."

"I'll look into that. In my free time."

Skyden grinned. "Brick could probably do it."

Before accompanying her husband downstairs, she looked in on her daughter. Kelsey was sleeping, her face half-buried in her pillow, her legs tangled in the sheets.

Skyden followed Cam into the living room and through the kitchen to the back door. She watched him through the window, leaning her forehead against the cool glass.

Cam stepped out onto the deck. To his left was his propane grill. To his right was their teak deck table and chairs. The blue and white striped patio umbrella was closed, secured by the clasp, lolling back and forth on the wooden pole.

She watched him pick up something from the lawn. As he walked back toward the house, she saw that he was carrying something metallic.

He entered the kitchen holding a tarnished vintage butter knife. "What is this thing doing out there? My grandmother used to have flatware like this." He set the knife on the counter. "I'm pretty sure she didn't set off the backyard camera notification."

"I think we can safely rule her out."

He walked to the basement door, opened it, and called, "Brick. Hey. You ready to go over to Jonas' house?"

"Coming," he answered from the basement.

........

The last of the sunlight glanced off the river's surface and lit the murky clouds as Lloyd drove out of the hills of East Liverpool and across the bridge back toward the state line. Patrice had been quiet, her eyes barely blinking.

"You wanna get something to eat?" Lloyd asked. "Maybe a drive-thru or a quick coffee?"

"I don't think we have time for that."

He lowered his window an inch or two and accelerated.

They rode for another ten minutes of silence while she simmered. "You don't go overnight from a troubled kid who doesn't eat his vegetables to some sick psycho dragging dead girls up to his closet and..." She couldn't bring herself to say it.

He gave her a look as if assessing the damage.

"You know there were signs along the way," she said. "Lots of damn signs."

In a mocking tone, he said, "Yeah but the kids at school said mean things." He offered a cynical smile. She didn't reciprocate.

"I'm a mom," she said. "A mom with a boy that I love to death. But no way in hell..."

"But you're a human being." Hoping to break the tension, he added, "A really messed up human being but a human being nonetheless."

"Kiss my ass." She finally cracked a smile. "And who says nonetheless?"

"I saw it in a book once." He kept his eyes on the road as the traffic grew thicker. "We been doing this job long enough to know that there are creatures walking around out there that look like us but they aren't human. Can't be. You just accept that their wiring shorted out or they got the wrong mix of chemicals in their heads."

"Or they been standing too close to the microwave since they were toddlers."

"Exactly. I mean when you see what some of them are capable of doing you don't try to make any kind of sense out of it. I don't. You do your job with a kind of general numbness. You have to. You see to it that they're put somewhere where they'll never be around human beings again and you do your best to forget about them, right?"

"Kelsey McKenzie and her family will never forget about Walter Schmitzer. Never. They'll spend the next ten years terrified that one day he's gonna be released and be back at it again. And that poor girl probably can't help but think maybe next time she's not gonna be so lucky."

Lloyd shook his head.

Her tone grew bitter, her expression cold again. "He probably won't even do hard prison time. They'll order him into the custody of a state psych facility or something like that."

"Like they think they got the medication and therapy to make him all better." He rolled his eyes. "Send him back into the world a model citizen." He stopped at a traffic light and looked into the rearview mirror. "Best possible outcome," he said, "Walter comes to realize half the cops within a hundred-mile radius are out looking for him and we find Walter hanging from a tree or parked somewhere sucking the exhaust from his Chevy Equinox."

She nodded. "I have a nagging feeling Walter's not going to be so obliging."

........

After dropping off his son at Jonas' house, Cam opened the garage door with his remote as he drove toward the house and followed his headlight beams up the driveway and into the garage. When he reached for his phone on the console, he caught a blur of motion in the rearview mirror. He pushed the car door open and stepped out onto the concrete floor. He looked out into the dusky neighborhood. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary. He walked toward the wall to hit the door switch when he felt a sharp jab in the back of his shoulder. As the garage door descended, Cam spun around to find Walter crouching with a syringe in his gloved hand. He threw a fist that struck Walter's jaw, dislodging his glasses. Walter whimpered like an injured puppy.

"Sky!" Cameron called out.

Walter charged, sticking Cam in the neck and face. Cameron swatted the syringe from Walter's grip and grabbed him by his scrawny throat. He swung Walter around, slammed him against the wall, and then threw him backward. His glasses jerked from his face and fell to the floor.

Walter latched onto Cam's jacket and dragged him down. They bounced off the hood of Cam's BMW before Cameron landed on the floor on top of Walter's frail body. With hard fury in his eyes, Cam found Walter's neck with both hands and squeezed. Walter's face went purple, his wild eyes bulged, saliva bubbled in the corners of his twisted mouth. He gasped, pushing his fingers into Cam's face.

Cameron fought to maintain his grip but he felt the Ketamine surging through his bloodstream. His vision blurred, his grip loosened, and the strength went out of his arms and hands. He let out a desperate grunt and collapsed on top of Walter.

........

Lloyd exited the interstate and turned onto the road bordering the golf course. He drove up the hill and onto the tree-lined, winding road leading into the McKenzie's neighborhood.

Not far from their house, Patrice pointed. "There. Look. Stop. Stop. A dark SUV with missing wheel covers."

They got out of their car and approached the old SUV, hands at their holsters.

"Is that an Equinox?" Patrice said.

"Sure looks like it. With Ohio plates."

Patrice raised her Maglite and directed the beam into the interior, squinting to see through her reflection on the windows. Something on the passenger seat shined back at her, a CD with block letters that read: Greatest Hits of the 80s. She identified a few crumpled paper bags on the floor, maybe McDonalds. Satisfied Walter Schmitzer was not in the vehicle, she swept the beam into the nearby properties. The flashlight found no one out in their yards, no glowing eyes of pets or roaming nocturnal animals.

After looking under the vehicle, Lloyd stood. "Nothing."

She shined the light into the backseat of the SUV where she noticed a pair of sneakers on the floor. "Lloyd. Girl's running shoes and looks like a pair of shorts."