“She shouldn’t have needed to be.”

When the interview was over, the specialist spoke to me without repeating every private detail.

Lily had described hearing an unfamiliar phone ring inside Mark’s toolbox.

She had heard Mark mention a repair that was not a repair, and say something about the house being empty.

She had understood enough to be afraid but not enough to know the full plan.

“She wondered whether speaking up would make you stop loving her father,” Ms.