“I wasn’t giving myself an alibi, Alma.

I was getting out of the room.

“I’ve done it my whole life.

I did it when Papi was ill.

I did it when my friend’s marriage ended.

I am not a person who stays in the room, and this time the room had my daughter in it.”

And the eleven words in the doorway.

I asked her about those, because I had turned them into the keystone of a conspiracy, and I needed to know.