It had become the silence of a great many people who had just understood that they were about to watch something true happen, whether they wanted to or not.

Chapter 8 — The Envelope

Garrett crossed the grass to us, ignoring Felicia entirely now, his eyes moving over the five faces as though he expected one of them to dissolve if he stared hard enough.

Not one of them dissolved.

“Jacqueline,” he said, and his voice was less steady than I had ever heard it, the voice of a man standing on ground that has begun to move.

“What is this?” I had carried a thick sealed manila envelope from the SUV, and my fingers closed around it now.