“Mr.

Vance,” she said, “your grandson was found over a mile from your estate, near a high-speed avenue.” I watched the color drain from Arthur’s face.

“What?” he said.

“A mile?” He had not known that part.

He had told himself, I think, a comfortable version of the story in which he had merely put a boy on a porch for a while to teach him a lesson, and now the actual story was arriving, and it was much worse than the one he had been living with.

Lucas spoke again, quietly, not looking at his grandfather this time but at the wall.