His remorse did not make me less angry with myself.

But it removed one ugly suspicion: my trip had not been engineered by Diane.

It had been a bad corporate demand and a worse judgment by me.

I told Dean I would not make that mistake twice.

He didn’t ask me to explain.

PART 10

By late afternoon, Detective Mercer had enough information to seek permission to examine our house and obtain additional records.

I signed a consent form for areas I had authority to allow her into, understanding that my mother’s belongings might require a different legal process.