She had done it before.

You do not drop to a hardwood floor that convincingly, plate and all, timed to the exact instant before contact, on your first attempt.

It is a performance that takes rehearsal, and a certain talent, and above all an audience trained to believe it.

And Spencer was that trained audience.

He did not pause, did not check, did not so much as glance at the distance between my hand and her body before he decided I had struck her.

He wanted to believe it, and she had given him the show that let him.