Kenneth panicked.

He grabbed a phone to silence the noise, and in his rush, in the dark, he got them confused.

He shoved his own burner into your jacket instead of pocketing it, and then he sealed the lid.” Vance let that sit for a moment.

“A guilty man’s careless, panicked mistake is the only reason you and your sons are breathing right now.”

I lay there and turned that over — that the entire survival of my family had turned on a single fumble by a frightened murderer, a two-second slip of the hand in the dark.