“For a long time that was even true.

But there’s a cost to a silence like that, Mrs.

Ashgrave, and it doesn’t only fall on you.

It falls on everyone the silence lets them reach next.” He looked at me for a long moment.

“It reached your husband.

I’m sorry it took your husband for me to stop being afraid.”

“Your husband didn’t just slide off a wet road, Mrs.

Ashgrave,” Rufus told me, his voice a gravel whisper.