Margaret has never fully squared those two dates, and neither did the prosecution, and it was one of the very few things in the case that was left as it was: the dress came first by a day.

Which means, and Adaeze Nwankwo said this in her closing in exactly these words, that Nathan Brooks bought his wife’s burial clothes before he had confirmed that she was leaving him.

He had simply decided.

Part Eleven: Forty-Two Minutes

The thing that turned a strong circumstantial case into a conviction was a nineteen-dollar camera that Nathan Brooks did not know existed.

There had been an earlier one.