Although she’d been born here, had grown up here, had spent so many good years here, she felt uneasy in the comfort of this quiet town, this quiet neighborhood, this quiet house. She should have been in Guatemala, still doing her best to help. But that was behind her now.

Rainy stepped from the house. “Feeling better?”

“Much,” Annie said.

“Okay if I sit?”

Annie said she didn’t mind. “It’s lovely here,” she said, once Rainy was beside her. “Very different from the asentamiento Maria and I call home.”

“What’s it like?”

“A barrio on the edge of Guatemala City. Lovely people struggling with poverty and prejudice and violence. We do what we can to help.” She fell silent for a moment, then nodded to a tire swing that hung from a branch on the elm tree in the front yard. “When we were kids, we had a tire swing just like that one. After we all became teenagers, Dad took it down. I like that it’s back up again. Does Waaboo enjoy it?”

“We all do because he does. We take turns pushing him. His laugh is infectious.” Rainy studied her, then said, “Your hand is trembling.”

Annie quickly nestled it in her lap. “Still recovering a little from my headache today.”

“Do you often have headaches?”

“Sometimes.”

“How are you sleeping?”

“Not very well.”

“I noticed when we were having coffee at the Four Seasons this morning that your hand trembled then, too.”

Annie didn’t reply.

“In the white culture, I’m known as a nurse,” Rainy said gently. “In the culture of my people, I’m known as a healer, a Mide.”

“I know.”

“If you want to talk, I’m happy to listen.”

“Thanks, but I’m fine,” Annie lied.

“All right,” Rainy said.

Maria stepped out onto the porch. “It is a beautiful evening.”

“Yes, it is,” Rainy said. “And I’ll let you two enjoy it. I’m going to put some dinner together.” She got up, offering her seat to Maria. Then she went inside.

Maria sat and Annie held out her trembling hand. “She suspects.”

“You didn’t tell her?”

“I’ll wait. After the wedding will be soon enough.”

“More headaches, more trembling, more stumbling, they will know.”

“I’m not ready yet.”

Annie tried to settle again into the quiet of the evening, but she felt tethered to a wagonload of concerns. “I should go back, Maria. I feel like a deserter.”

“You haven’t deserted anyone.”

“I see their faces, the little ones especially. I wanted to do so much more for them.”

“You gave them all that you could. Now it’s time for you to take care of yourself.”

Maria took her hand and held it. They sat together that way in a warm silence for a few minutes, until a van pulled up to the curb. Annie watched a man get out from behind the wheel and a woman exit the passenger side. As the woman approached, Annie pulled her hand from Maria’s. The woman stopped at the bottom of the front porch steps and smiled up at them.

“I’m looking for the parents of Aaron O’Connor.”

“Waaboo,” Annie said.

“Waaboo? Little Rabbit?” The woman smiled. “And you are?”

Annie sensed something a great deal more troubling than the discomfort she’d been feeling since her return to Aurora. “How about you tell me who you are first?” she said.

“My name is Greta Hanover.”

Annie offered no reply, making it clear that she was waiting for more.

“I’m a reporter for the Duluth News Tribune.”

“Why do you want to see Waaboo’s parents?”

“It’s really Waaboo that I want to speak with. I understand he may have been helpful in locating Olivia Hamilton’s body.”

A blade of fear sliced through Annie’s gut. The secret was out. “Where did you hear that?”

“I picked up chatter on my police scanner. It was a little vague, but I was able to confirm with an inside source that he was at the cabin where her body was found. Is that true?”

“I’d rather not say.”

“I was given to understand that he may have actually led the police there. Some sort of vision he had.”

“I think it’s best that you leave,” Annie said.

The woman gave a nod, as if she understood Annie’s resistance. “Look, I’m sure other reporters have been monitoring their police scanners. If they make the connections in the same way I did, they’ll descend, and let me tell you quite honestly, they can be vultures. If I could speak with Waaboo and his parents, we might be able to keep you all from being overwhelmed.”

“Whatever you heard, it’s not true,” Annie said.

The screen door of the front porch opened and Rainy stepped out. “Can I help you?”

“A reporter,” Annie said.