Mrs.

Higgins set her teacup on a cork coaster and adjusted her reading glasses before pointing at the desktop monitor.

“The glass reflected the sun, but the microphone caught every single word,” she said.

A bright blue sound wave spiked across the bottom of the screen, rising and falling in sharp ridges against a dark grid.

On the video track above it, the glare off the dining room window turned the glass into a sheet of silver light, hiding the faces inside.

I rested my thumb lightly on the inside of my wrist, keeping track of my steady pulse while the audio played.