She was on the balcony.” A hard breath.

“No.

No, she’s not.

I gave her the whole bottle in a cup of tea and she went down like a stone.

“So you get in the car and you get out here, and bring the good tarp from the garage, and we’ll take her out past the county line where nobody’s going to be walking a dog.

And then tomorrow you go and you sell that apartment, because I have been listening to you talk about that apartment for four years and I am tired, Mark.”

A pause.