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“I shouldn’t have gone out like that,” he said to Cricket. “I’m sorry. I should have told my boss to handle things herself. I—it was so stupid. I’ve made a lot of mistakes.”
He seemed really upset, color wan. She held him tight, and his arms closed around her. She felt him kiss her head, and she started to cry a little but not so that anyone would see.
“We’re having a crisis of our own here,” said Bruce. “The power’s out. And Liza is gone.”
“Gone?” asked Joshua. She felt his body tense. “How?”
That’s when Cricket noticed that Mako’s Tesla was still in the drive. If Liza had left, how had she gone? On foot? Did she call an Uber? Liza had made all the arrangements for the house, hadn’t she? Maybe she’d been planning this all along. Itwasa good moment to leave Mako, if that’s what she wanted. In front of everyone, he couldn’t resort to the usual tactics he used to manipulate women.
But the blood.
“Let’s get inside, take a look at that cut,” said Bruce.
Back in the living room Mako was standing in the kitchen, staring at his cell phone. They could hear a faint ringing coming from the call Mako seemed to be making. Cricket still clung to Joshua and he was leaning on her heavily. She moved him over to the couch where he sank down hard. How bad was that head injury?
“Let me get some ice,” she said, heading to the kitchen area. Maybe there was a first aid kit, too. She looked to Hannah for help. She was good at things like this—Camp Fire Girl, lifeguard, trained in CPR, at least when they were kids. But instead Hannah stood frozen, was looking at her brother with a deep frown. Mako was looking at his phone.
“What are youdoing?” Hannah asked Mako, voice sharp.
He looked up at her quickly, then back at the screen. “I’m calling Liza and tracking her on Find My Friends.”
“Where is she?”
“Shhh. Service is shit.”
The moment swelled and expanded, all of them waiting. But finally they heard the call engage with voicemail, Liza’s voice faint.
Sorry I missed you. Leave a message. Namaste.
He ended the call. “Fuck.”
“Mako.Where does it say she is?” Hannah asked again.
Mako turned the phone so that they could all see. A blue dot blinked in a sea of green. Mako’s dot was right beside it.
“It says she’s right here,” he said, looking between each of them. “Somewhere on this property.”
Part Two
family of strangers
“Beware that, when fighting monsters,
you yourself do not become a monster.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche
28
Hannah
“What do you mean?” Hannah asked her brother, grabbing for the phone. He had that helpless, overwhelmed look that he got when things were not going his way. He was a man-baby.
He held up the screen again, its glow casting their faces in white. “Her phone ishere, somewhere on the property.”
Hannah stared, mind grappling for understanding. Was this some kind of joke or prank?
“That makes no sense.”
