Six months from the eleventh of October to the eleventh of April, during which I was, formally, a person with an open child abuse investigation against her.

Not a suspect.

Not accused.

A person with an open investigation, which is a category that does not appear in any novel and which about forty thousand adults occupy in this state at any given moment.

In that six months I turned down two jobs.

That is a thing I have not told anybody except Hugo and Rosalind Vey.

Two agencies called me for depositions involving minors — a school district case and a pediatric malpractice matter — and I said I was not available, and I was available.

I did it because I could not sit in a room and make a record of a case about a child while there was an open file with my name in it, and because I was terrified that somebody would find out and I would be the story.