“It’s with people whose job is to understand what happened.”

“Will it tell them why Dad was doing it?”

“Maybe some of it.”

She nodded.

I wished there were a recording that could explain how a parent stops thinking like a parent.

But I knew no collection of messages could supply an explanation that would make sense to her.

That evening Rachel found Lily at the living-room window, watching a family unload groceries from a minivan.

The father lifted a sleeping child out of the back seat and carried her upstairs.