If that woman neglected a four-year-old child, that’s between her and the Lord.”

“You never spoke to Evelyn on Tuesday,” I said.

“Are you calling your mother-in-law a liar, Hannah?”

I could picture her fingers reaching up to twist the pearl earring on her left ear, the exact tell she’d had for twelve years whenever she was making up an alibi.

“I broke open the black document case Derek left in our hall closet,” I said.

The line went dead silent for three full seconds, the only sound in the background the low drone of ship engines.