It Could Have Been Her

Jane puts her AirPods in and finds the podcast she was listening to earlier—true crime, always true crime—and follows the muted rustle and thump of her dogs’ paws on the path before her. The apartment is a tip; evidence of the night before lies everywhere. The girl in the garden looked, according to Detective Brooks, exactly like her.” Jane’s breath catches. “Obviously, there was nothing to be done in the moment, but it set Detective Brooks on a mission. Please.” And she sees it then: the carapace starts to crackle and craze and finally Stuart starts to talk. “Things had always been difficult in that house—volatile, messy, dark.