Thomas gave one short laugh through his nose.

“There it is.

Back in July she spotted a garden snake in the mulch.

She hasn’t stopped talking about it since.”

“In July,” María said.

“Kids hang on to things.”

Daniel rocked back onto his rear heel and let his gaze drift past Thomas’s shoulder, along the baseboard of the front hall.

A cream-colored wire ran the full length of it, stapled down flat at even spacing, and disappeared around the corner where the hallway went dark.