PART 7: What the Neighbors Heard

Two streets away from Daniel’s house lived a woman named Pearl Watkins.

She’d waved from her porch whenever I took my short morning walks.

Sometimes she brought over tomatoes from her garden and pretended not to notice when Sloan refused to answer the door.

Pearl called me after noticing an unfamiliar car in the driveway.

“Loretta?

I heard you went to the doctor.

Are you all right?”