They had not understood that the very habits of mind they had always mocked in me, the carefulness, the attention to paperwork, the refusal to let a number that did not add up simply pass, were exactly the habits that were about to undo them.

I did not need to be stronger than them, or richer, or louder.

I only needed to be more accurate.

And accuracy was the one thing I had never lacked.

Chapter 5 — A Very Different Statement

On my fourth day in the recovery ward, two detectives came to see me, and I told them everything, every detail I could remember, in order, plainly.

Detective Ramirez listened, and took notes, and when I finished, she closed her notebook with an expression I could not quite read.