She had known the date for five weeks.

He thumbed the screen and put it down flat on the chest of drawers and set it to speaker, which he always did with her when I was in the room, and which I had taken for years as a sign of nothing to hide.

I now think it was so that there would be a witness.

“Kevin, sweetheart, I’ve been giving this some thought,” she said, in that voice of hers, which is sweet the way a cough mixture is sweet.

“I’ll come and stay once they let you home.