Their height marks were still penciled on the doorframe near the pantry.

“I raised him,” she said when I entered.

“I taught him to help people.” She looked at me with red eyes.

“What if I taught him nothing at all?”

“You don’t know everything he chose,” I answered.

“Neither do I.” It was the most compassionate truthful response I could find.

I sat with her while she called her daughter, Melissa, and arranged for somebody to stay overnight.

At the hospital, Rachel learned of Kyle’s arrest from the prosecutor assigned to the case.