Bennett folded his hands.

“Richard Sterling is alive.

He and Arthur were estranged.

He’s been notified of the death and will receive the information he’s legally entitled to.”

I thought about how Arthur had changed the subject whenever his son came up.

I never pressed.

Once he’d told me, “There are relationships you can spend a lifetime trying to repair and still make worse.” I had accepted that some doors remained closed for reasons a neighbor couldn’t know.

“Will Richard challenge this?” I asked.