He Was Sure the Cops Would Believe the Polished Son-in-Law Over a Terrified Old Woman. Then I Asked Them to Look at the Fireplace

I come from her.

On the nights I’m proud of how I handled that station, I try to remember where the steel actually came from.

Chapter 16 — The Fireplace She Didn’t Have

A year after that night, I stood in my mother’s sunlit living room on a warm afternoon, the windows open, the whole room smelling of the roses she’d cut and put in a jar on the sill.

She came in from the kitchen and handed me a cup of tea, and the two of us stood together for a moment, looking at the wall.

At the fireplace.