“Wow. I’m sorry. She was like family.”

“But she wasn’t family.”

No, “family” was somewhere hiding from law enforcement. I moved on to a safer subject. “So tell me where you think we should put the Christmas tree.”

We spent the next fifteen minutes deciding Christmas details. Neither of us wondered out loud whether Wendy would be home by then or not. We were planning a holiday without her, just in case.

When we finished, Mom insisted she had to leave, and I walked her to the door. “I’ve been wondering,” she said, “do you need to get back to Delray at some point for your job?”

For the first time in days, I’d put aside both Milton Kerns and Wendy Wainwright and spent my morning working on Out in the Cold, slogging through a list that would have been easier to complete in Delray Beach.

“If I can find a way, I do need to go back for a day or two to put my head together with some of our crew. We have details to consult on.”

“What kind of details?”

“Sophie—you remember Sophie?” I went on after she nodded. “She found a cold case a bit north of Seabank. She sent me the background, and now we’re both intrigued. A little boy went missing about ten years ago, and the authorities believed they might have found him. Only before they could do a DNA test, he disappeared again. If we do this one, we’ll be following the story in real time, as the search progresses. We’ll do the background, talk to all the suspects, his family, his teachers. We’ve found some interesting side developments we can explore. It’s the kind of case we’ve been looking for.”

“I still remember how surprised I was when you became obsessed with crime in college, and later with reporting it.”

“I’m more obsessed with justice.”

She smiled, as if she were proud of me for noting the difference. “When I think about it, I shouldn’t have been surprised. Do you remember that right after your dad and I married I worked on a newspaper?”

“I don’t think I would have forgotten something like that.”

“You probably thought it was too dull to remember, and the job was short-lived. I covered weddings and school board meetings. If I was really lucky, I got to attend city council sessions, but only if there was nothing worth noting on the agenda. I thought I was putting in my time so I could move up to something more interesting, like crime or politics.”

“You could have covered both in one fell swoop.”

She smiled a little. “I got pregnant with your sister before I could uncover one good story. Suddenly I had a whole new career path.” The smile disappeared. “Maybe I should have kept the job. Maybe then I wouldn’t have measured my success by how perfect my daughter was.”

“You can’t blame yourself for anything Wendy does.”

“I don’t even know what she’s doing.”