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her ahead of me while I fished my cell phone out of my pocket with the other.
    We got as far as the sidewalk before Avery braced her feet. She swung around to face me and crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what’s going on,” she said. She had the same stubborn look I’d seen many times over the years in her grandmother’s eyes.
    â€œThere was . . . an accident,” I said, choosing my words carefully.
    â€œYou mean Lily’s dead,” she said flatly, “because if she were just hurt, you’d be in there helping her.”
    I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “Yes,” I said. “Lily’s dead. Please go sit in the car while I call 911.”
    Avery looked over at the bakery. “All right,” she said after a moment. She started for the SUV.
    â€œAvery,” I called after her.
    She stopped and looked back over her shoulder at me. “Keep your phone in your pocket for now, please.” I didn’t want her to text her friends with the news before the police had a chance to contact Caroline.
    After a moment’s hesitation she nodded. “All right.”
    I turned my back to the SUV, swallowed against the sudden sting of tears and called 911.
    The first patrol car arrived in minutes. I explained about finding Lily’s body. The officer asked me to stay outside and went in to have a look for himself. After that things got very busy, very quickly. Avery and I waited in the SUV and watched the action swirl around us. When I saw Michelle’s car pull in at the curb ahead of us, I nudged Avery.
    â€œI’m going to talk to Detective Andrews for a minute,” I said.
    Detective Michelle Andrews and I had been best friends growing up, at least for two months of the year. We were both summer kids in North Harbor, and each year we’d just pick up the friendship where we’d left off the previous summer. Then at fifteen Michelle had suddenly stopped talking to me. It wasn’t until last winter that I’d found out why. Now we were slowly rebuilding our relationship.
    â€œSo stay here,” Avery finished. “Yeah, I know.”
    Michelle smiled when she caught sight of me.“Hey, Sarah. What’s going on?” she asked. She was wearing a dark navy parka and heavy-soled boots. A cardinal-red hat was the only spot of color I could see on her. Michelle was tall and lean with red hair and green eyes. Everything looked good on her.
    â€œI came to pick up five dozen rolls for the hot-lunch program at the elementary school.” I stopped for a moment, seeing Lily’s body at the bottom of the basement steps in my mind. “Lily . . . Uh, there was no sign of Lily anywhere. I found her at the bottom of the basement steps. She’s dead.”
    Michelle’s eyes shifted to the bakery for a moment and then came back to me. “Did you touch the body?”
    Lily had already gone from being a person to a body. I reminded myself that Michelle was just doing her job. “No,” I said.
    She frowned. “How did you know she was dead, then?”
    This time I was the one who looked away for a moment. “I don’t think anyone’s neck could be at that angle and still be alive,” I said quietly.
    â€œI’m sorry, Sarah,” she said, laying her hand on my shoulder for a moment.
    I brushed a strand of hair back off my face and took a deep breath, trying to hold back the tears that were threatening again. “It’s all right. Better it was me that found her and not her mother.”
    Michelle nodded. “Okay, tell me what happened, from the beginning.”
    There really wasn’t that much to tell, but I went over everything that had happened from the time I’dpicked up Avery until the patrol car arrived. As I finished, Nick Elliot’s black SUV angled in at the curb in front of Michelle’s car. He got out, grabbed