There was no gap.

She made one.

She took a man who had the complete file, who knew the dates and the dosages and the clinic’s switchboard number by heart, and in one telephone call and one cropped photograph she persuaded him that the file was not the evidence.

Part Seventeen: The Cold Tile

And standing there I thought about the bathroom floor for a moment, no longer than that.

The cold of the tile coming through my back.