She simply crossed the room, chose a chair near the window with a clear line to the door — old habit — and sat down with her daughter, and waited.

Chapter 10 — The Doors Close

At noon exactly, Beaufort Ashworth, the patriarch of the family and the owner of a large commercial construction firm, came into the drawing room and had the doors closed.

“No one,” he said, “leaves this room until the truth of last night has been laid out in full.”

He was a hard, careful old man, Beaufort, not a warm one, and Marisela had never been able to read him — but she noticed that he did not look at her the way the rest of them did.

He looked at her the way you look at a variable you have not yet solved.