“When I came in from the garage, he stepped back quick.”

“Your mother’s known Rob as long as I have,” I said.

“We all went to high school together.”

Mark looked at me for three long seconds without another word.

Then he turned and went out to the front porch, letting the screen door latch behind him.

***

By midnight, the bedroom air had grown cold enough to pull the chill off the yard through the window frame.

Vanessa sat on the vanity stool in her nightgown, unhooking a pair of small pearl earrings.