What I could do was draw the line at the right place: let her find clues, never let her carry consequences; let her help me see, never let her be the one who decided or confronted or paid.

She had an instinct for the work that I had spent years developing and she simply had: a nose for the detail that did not belong, a patience for checking a thing twice, an absence of the adult reluctance to believe a friendly face could be lying.

I would spend the rest of it trying to use that gift without letting it cost her, and I did not wholly succeed.

“Mom.