was planned, she thought—and surely it must have been because you don’t just happen to show up in someone’s backyard with a hypodermic needle and an electric razor—then it meant that someone was doing their damnedest to rattle her. Did it have to do with Keaton’s death? Her heart sank. Maybe the killer knew she’d been with Keaton—and had followed her to Roxbury. She thought back on the drive yesterday. She didn’t recall any one car following her for any length of time, but she’d been lost in her thoughts much of the time—she probably wouldn’t have noticed.
But that wasn’t the only possibility, of course. She remembered her call to Maggie yesterday. She’d told her that she was coming up here, even given the name of the town, and had asked Maggie to let people at the clinic know. Maggie had also pointed out that the clinic was closing early that day. Anyone with a car could have checked her address with directory assistance and found the house. She’d mentioned to at least a few people at the clinic that she had a cat.
And what about her kids? she wondered frantically. Could they be in any danger? She had to get to the camp and make certain they were okay.
“But don’t exceed two a day.”
She looked up, startled. Dr. Jennings was holding out a small white packet to her.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “Can you repeat that?”
“If he acts stressed again, you can give him one of these, but don’t exceed two a day.”
A few minutes later she was headed back to Roxbury, her mind spinning. She wished she could just pack up everything at the house and not have to come back, but she couldn’t take Smokey to the camp with her. Not only would it be cruel to leave him in his carrier all day, but she also couldn’t risk the kids getting a look at him.
She pulled the car into the driveway and scanned all around the outside of the house. Not seeing anything out of the ordinary, she left Smokey in the kitchen with food and a fresh bowl of water, and then raced back out to the car.
She was now running ten minutes late. She tried to make up the time by driving as fast as possible, but her foot kept easing off the accelerator as her mind attempted to fathom this new twist to her nightmare. If someone from the clinic had done this, why? Because the person had murdered Keaton and knew she was with him that night?
But if the killer knew she’d been in the apartment, why did it matter so much? Obviously because he—or she—assumed Lake suspected who it was. But if Lake was a supposed threat, why harm her cat and not her? It must be a warning, she decided. “I know you were there and you better shut up—or you’ll be next.” There was no way she could ever let Hull and McCarty find out about Smokey. They would suspect instantly that something was up with her.
Just before she made the second-to-last turn for the camp, she checked her rearview mirror for what seemed to be the hundredth time. No one was behind her.
As she pulled into the overflowing parking lot of the camp, she realized that she’d been so preoccupied with what had happened to Smokey that she hadn’t mentally prepared for seeing Jack today. Jack, who, she suddenly realized, had also known she would be at the house this weekend. Maybe the scare with Smokey wasn’t related at all to Keaton’s death, but to the custody situation. Jack trying to scare her so she’d come unhinged. Could he have done this? Opening the car door, she realized how this thought would have been impossible with the old Jack. But she knew nothing about what the new Jack was capable of.
She heard her daughter before she saw her—as the word Mom rang out from the grassy slope just above the parking lot. It was just like Amy to be waiting excitedly for her arrival—and Lake felt a surge of relief.
“Hey, sweetie,” Lake called, waving broadly and forcing a big smile. Amy was with another girl about the same size, both in their khaki shorts and hunter-green shirts stamped with the camp logo, and they bounded toward Lake as if she were an ice cream truck pulling up on a sweltering hot afternoon. Lake hurried to meet them. Though Amy possessed Jack’s tall, athletic build, she had Lake’s coloring—the brown