“You took off for six months, Major, so don’t lecture us about responsibility.”

“I’m not lecturing.

I’m asking where your brother left my daughter.”

“He left her with a grown-up in the house.

That’s what he told Mama, and that’s what he told me.”

“There was no one in the house, Jenna.

There was a speaker on the doorbell.”

The line went silent so long that I checked the screen to see if she’d hung up.