Boden rolled his eyes when I reminded him for the third time to stay with them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know, Mom.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re six.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd don\u2019t let Finn eat half his candy before he gets home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finn looked offended.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would never.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boden laughed.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe absolutely would.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then the three of them disappeared down the sidewalk.<\/p>\n
For the next couple of hours, everything felt normal.<\/p>\n
Children ran from house to house. Parents stood on sidewalks holding coffee cups. Porch lights glowed up and down the neighborhood, and every few minutes I heard somebody shouting \u201cTrick or treat!\u201d from outside.<\/p>\n
Boden texted me shortly after eight.<\/p>\n
Almost home. Going to meet the guys after Weller\u2019s.<\/p>\n
I sent back a thumbs-up.<\/p>\n
Mrs. Harlow lived four houses away. From there, the twins had only a short walk home.<\/p>\n
I wasn\u2019t worried.<\/p>\n
Twenty minutes later, the front door opened.<\/p>\n
I expected Laurel and Finn to come racing inside and dump their candy across the living-room floor.<\/p>\n
Instead, Laurel stumbled through the doorway first.<\/p>\n
Finn came directly behind her.<\/p>\n
Both children were crying so hard their shoulders were shaking.<\/p>\n
And their buckets were empty.<\/p>\n
Completely empty.<\/p>\n
Not mostly empty. Not a few pieces left at the bottom. There wasn\u2019t even a stray wrapper.<\/p>\n
It looked as if they had never gone trick-or-treating at all.<\/p>\n
I dropped to the floor in front of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened?\u201d<\/p>\n
Laurel tried to answer, but whatever she said disappeared into another sob.<\/p>\n
\u201cSweetheart, look at me. Are you hurt?\u201d<\/p>\n
She shook her head.<\/p>\n
I turned to Finn.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid somebody scare you?\u201d<\/p>\n
He covered his face with both hands.<\/p>\n
I checked them as carefully as I could. Their costumes were still intact. Laurel\u2019s wings were crooked, but they had been crooked when she left. Neither child had any visible injuries.<\/p>\n
Then I looked at their buckets.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere\u2019s your candy?\u201d<\/p>\n
That question made both of them cry even harder.<\/p>\n
For nearly ten minutes, I couldn\u2019t get a clear sentence from either child.<\/p>\n
Eventually, I grabbed my phone and called Boden.<\/p>\n
He answered after several rings, and I could hear music and teenagers shouting behind him.<\/p>\n
\u201cMom?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere did you leave Laurel and Finn?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat house were they going to when you left?\u201d<\/p>\n
There was a pause.<\/p>\n
\u201cMrs. Harlow\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n
I sat back on my heels.<\/p>\n
Mrs. Harlow.<\/p>\n
Of all the neighbors on our street, she was probably the last person I wanted involved.<\/p>\n
She was in her late sixties and had lived four houses down from us since before we moved in. I had never had a real argument with her, but she had complained about nearly everything at least once.<\/p>\n
Our trash cans were sometimes too close to the sidewalk.<\/p>\n
Boden bounced his basketball too late in the evening.<\/p>\n
Finn rode his scooter too close to her driveway.<\/p>\n
Once, she had knocked on our door because Laurel and Finn were drawing with chalk near the edge of her lawn.<\/p>\n
She wasn\u2019t cruel, exactly.<\/p>\n
She was simply the kind of neighbor who always seemed to be watching.<\/p>\n
And now my six-year-olds had come home from her direction with empty buckets and swollen faces.<\/p>\n
I called my husband.<\/p>\n
Grant was working late, and the second he answered, I said, \u201cI\u2019m going over to Harlow\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe twins came home crying. They won\u2019t tell me anything, and all their candy is gone. Boden says he left them near her house.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLaine, wait.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWait for what?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t go over there angry when you don\u2019t know what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey can barely talk.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know, but just give me a second.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was quiet for a moment.<\/p>\n
Then he said, \u201cOpen my laptop.\u201d<\/p>\n
I frowned.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are cameras.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat cameras?\u201d<\/p>\n
Another pause.<\/p>\n
\u201cI installed a couple a few weeks ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stood up slowly.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou did what?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRemember the tire?\u201d<\/p>\n
Three weeks earlier, Grant had gone outside before work and found one of our car tires damaged. He had been convinced someone had done it deliberately.<\/p>\n
I thought he was overreacting.<\/p>\n
Apparently, he had taken it seriously enough to put up cameras without telling me.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey cover the driveway and most of the street,\u201d he explained. \u201cThey record sound too.\u201d<\/p>\n
I should have been angry.<\/p>\n
Instead, I opened his laptop.<\/p>\n
Grant gave me the password and helped me find the right time.<\/p>\n
The video started just before Boden left the twins.<\/p>\n
At first, everything looked normal.<\/p>\n
Laurel and Finn appeared at the far end of the street, walking side by side.<\/p>\n
Their buckets were full.<\/p>\n
That was the first thing I noticed.<\/p>\n
They had collected plenty of candy.<\/p>\n
Then another figure appeared behind them.<\/p>\n
Mrs. Harlow.<\/p>\n
She was walking on the opposite sidewalk, maybe half a block back.<\/p>\n
When the twins stopped at a house, she slowed down.<\/p>\n
When they continued, so did she.<\/p>\n
I leaned closer to the screen.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat are you doing?\u201d<\/p>\n
Suddenly, every uncomfortable thing I had ever thought about that woman seemed justified.<\/p>\n
She wasn\u2019t simply waiting on her porch.<\/p>\n
She was following my children.<\/p>\n
I rewound the video.<\/p>\n
A few minutes earlier, Boden was still beside them.<\/p>\n
He checked his phone, pointed down the street toward our house, then said something before jogging away in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n
The twins continued alone.<\/p>\n
The second Boden disappeared around the corner, Mrs. Harlow stepped away from her driveway.<\/p>\n
She watched Laurel and Finn for several seconds.<\/p>\n
Then she followed them.<\/p>\n
My anger shifted.<\/p>\n
Boden had told me he left them near the last houses.<\/p>\n
He hadn\u2019t mentioned that he walked away before they even reached Mrs. Harlow\u2019s property.<\/p>\n
I called him again.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou left them alone before Harlow\u2019s?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were right there, Mom.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are six years old.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were basically home.\u201d<\/p>\n
I opened my mouth to snap at him.<\/p>\n
Then those two words stopped me.<\/p>\n
Basically home.<\/p>\n
Wasn\u2019t that what I had been telling myself too?<\/p>\n
They were only four houses away.<\/p>\n
I could see the street from my window.<\/p>\n
They were almost home.<\/p>\n
On the recording, the twins reached Mrs. Harlow\u2019s porch.<\/p>\n
Her porch light was off.<\/p>\n
Finn knocked anyway.<\/p>\n
A few seconds later, Mrs. Harlow approached from behind them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere is your brother?\u201d<\/p>\n
Laurel turned around.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe went with his friends.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe left you here?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re almost home,\u201d Finn said.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes your mother know you\u2019re walking alone?\u201d<\/p>\n
Laurel pointed toward our house.<\/p>\n
\u201cMom can see us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mrs. Harlow looked down the street.<\/p>\n
Then her voice changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, sweetheart. Your mother can see the street. She can\u2019t see everything that happens between here and there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Something about the way she said it made me stop.<\/p>\n
She wasn\u2019t angry.<\/p>\n
She sounded frightened.<\/p>\n
Mrs. Harlow unlocked her door.<\/p>\n
\u201cWait here.\u201d<\/p>\n
She disappeared inside and returned with a small wooden box.<\/p>\n
She placed it on the porch railing.<\/p>\n
Inside were three objects.<\/p>\n
A bent nail.<\/p>\n
A metal valve cap.<\/p>\n
And a tiny blue toy car.<\/p>\n
Finn immediately stepped forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s mine!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know,\u201d Mrs. Harlow said. \u201cI found it near your driveway.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finn had been looking for that little car for weeks.<\/p>\n
Mrs. Harlow picked up the valve cap.<\/p>\n
\u201cI found this there too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then she held up the nail.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Laurel frowned.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy do you have our things?\u201d<\/p>\n
Mrs. Harlow didn\u2019t answer.<\/p>\n
Instead, she asked, \u201cDoes your brother still ride that black bicycle?\u201d<\/p>\n
I froze.<\/p>\n
The damaged tire.<\/p>\n
I opened the older recordings.<\/p>\n
It took several minutes, but eventually I found the morning Grant discovered the damage.<\/p>\n
There was Boden.<\/p>\n
He was dragging his bicycle through the narrow space between our car and the edge of the driveway. The pedal caught near the wheel.<\/p>\n
Boden pulled hard.<\/p>\n
Then stopped.<\/p>\n
He crouched beside the tire, looked at something, and quickly glanced toward the house.<\/p>\n
Whatever he picked up disappeared into his pocket.<\/p>\n
A few minutes later, he came back and kicked a loose nail away from the driveway.<\/p>\n
Nobody had targeted us.<\/p>\n
Boden had damaged the tire by accident.<\/p>\n
And instead of admitting it, he had kept quiet while his father convinced himself somebody was watching our family.<\/p>\n
I called him again.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened to Dad\u2019s tire?\u201d<\/p>\n
Silence.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoden.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t mean to.\u201d<\/p>\n
I closed my eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy bike slipped. The pedal caught near the wheel. I thought I only scratched something, but then Dad saw the tire and got really angry.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo you hid it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI got scared.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYour father thought someone did it deliberately.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you said nothing?\u201d<\/p>\n
Another pause.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n
The cameras Grant had installed because he believed someone was targeting our house existed because our own son had been too afraid to admit an accident.<\/p>\n
I told Boden to come home.<\/p>\n
Then I returned to the Halloween recording.<\/p>\n
Mrs. Harlow had closed the wooden box.<\/p>\n
Laurel was looking at her.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy do you care where Boden went?\u201d<\/p>\n
Mrs. Harlow hesitated.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finn asked the question children always seem willing to ask when adults know better.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you have kids?\u201d<\/p>\n
For several seconds, Mrs. Harlow didn\u2019t answer.<\/p>\n
Then she sat down on the porch step.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Laurel moved closer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere are they?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a son and a daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was your son\u2019s name?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEllis.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd where is he?\u201d<\/p>\n
Mrs. Harlow lowered her eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cEllis died.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both twins went completely still.<\/p>\n
So did I.<\/p>\n
Mrs. Harlow took a slow breath.<\/p>\n
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