“Daniel, I was going to phone your house once I got home from the shop,” she said, putting one can down on the bottom shelf with a heavy metallic clank.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

She stepped around a stack of plastic buckets and lowered her voice so the clerk in the next aisle wouldn’t overhear.

“I saw Vanessa downtown Tuesday night at that fancy steakhouse by the river,” Sarah said.

“She told me she was at her mother’s helping with the laundry,” I said.

“She wasn’t at her mother’s,” Sarah said, moving closer to my shoulder.

“She was in a dark booth at the back with Rob, and he passed her a little black box tied with a silver ribbon.”