Helen checked her wristwatch, then met my eyes with a firm nod.

“My shift ends at seven tomorrow morning, Pastor.

I’ll be sitting in the third pew before Arthur opens his ledger.”

“Thanks, Helen,” I said.

I folded the certified paper carefully and tucked it into my pastoral logbook beside Kade’s confession letter.

We left the hospital through the back emergency doors and stepped into the cold night air.

The parking lot lay silent under the tall sodium lamps, with the wind pushing dry oak leaves across the asphalt.

I took my car keys from my pocket, unlocked the driver’s door of the LeSabre, and released the trunk latch.