“The levels varied,” she said.

“This wasn’t fourteen identical readings.”

“But fourteen homes had to leave.”

“Yes.”

I pictured a boy on the pavement in his pajamas and a woman gripping a cat carrier.

I wondered whether they had found somewhere warm, whether anyone had remembered a charger, whether the person with the houseplant had taken it because it was close to the door or because it mattered.

I had nearly stayed for a suitcase.