That was the detail that took the breath out of me.

They had been so certain, so far along in their plan, that they had already started emptying her home before they had finished emptying her from it.

The abandonment at the nursing facility that morning had not been the culmination of their scheme.

It had been a logistical step, a clearing of the last obstacle, so that the real work — the boxing, the listing, the selling of the home out from under her — could proceed on schedule.

They had walked her into a lobby at lunchtime and started packing her house that afternoon.