PART 12
When a detective later asked me to identify certain dates, I spread my calendar, Harper’s school notices, and the photographs I’d taken across the table.

My mother sat beside me and helped sort them.

She did not try to make everything fit a theory.

If a date was uncertain, she marked it uncertain.

If she remembered a pickup differently from me, we wrote both accounts.

The detective thanked us for being precise.

It was the first time I understood that a truthful answer can include “I don’t remember.” I had spent so long with Carter that any uncertainty felt like a weakness he’d use against me.

Here, uncertainty was simply part of getting things right.