Chapter 28It was half past nine when the cab pulled up in front of the town house.
As Samuel paid the driver, Ruth stepped out of the backseat onto the patched cobblestone border of the asphalt road. She peered down the darkening lane, counting a total of only four streetlamps. She thought of the children and their summer-evening games and shuddered to imagine any one of them hiding or seeking amid such a dimly lit affair.
She moved toward the house and the eerie cranking sound of an old air-conditioning unit affixed to the side of the building, next to a rusty drainpipe. Luna’s lemon trees, flagging from weeks of neglect, still stood on either side of the small front porch—lighted by a single bronze-colored gooseneck fixture above.
Samuel moved past her, suitcase in hand, and snagged t
