“I walked over across the lawn at four o’clock Tuesday with a covered plate of roast chicken.

I pressed the button two times.”

“Did a grown-up come to the door?” Bell asked, pulling a small black notepad from his breast pocket.

“No,” Evelyn said, her fingers tightening in her apron.

“Derek’s voice came right out of that little speaker.

He said a teenager named Sarah was upstairs sitting with Lily while she rested.”

I tapped my phone screen and opened the security system app.

The home screen showed a tidy list of eight motion events the porch camera had recorded between Tuesday morning and Thursday evening.