I went to the window and saw the white hood in the driveway.”

She was lying with the desperate intensity of someone who had practiced the story in front of a mirror.

“You need to tell them he came to your apartment to drop off some tools,” she said.

“Just say he was there by nine-thirty.”

“I will not lie to the detectives,” I said.

“He is your brother, Mara,” she said, her voice cracking.

“If you don’t help him, they will take him away.”