The following evening, she tried trailing Orion, tiptoeing across lawns as he padded down the street. But the cat was crafty—slipping through hedges and darting behind fences until Eliza lost him. It didn’t help that it was nearly night, and Maplewood’s dimly lit roads offered perfect cover for a stealthy feline.
Unwilling to give up, Eliza planned to skip work the next day. She was compelled by curiosity, a feeling that Orion’s discoveries pointed to something long buried. That morning, she patiently watched as Orion stretched, yawned, and trotted toward the back of the house.