The detective vanished, and in his place was simply a twelve-year-old boy who had been frightened and sad for a long time, and who was, at last, allowed to set it all down and let his mother carry it the rest of the way.

I held him until the sobbing eased, and then a while longer, and the taxi driver, a kind man, said nothing and did not hurry us and simply let the meter run and drove slowly through the dark streets.

And I made Leo a promise that night, into the top of his head, that I have kept every day since.

I told him that from that moment forward, the adult problems belonged to the adults.