I wanted to wish her well for what she was about to go through. But after all that had gone down saying nothing struck me as the right call. I put the car back into gear. I drove into the clinic parking lot. A woman in a white medical coat was standing outside, talking with the two security guards. I pulled up right in front of the entrance. The woman got out, followed by Elise.

‘We should be in there for around two hours,’ she said. ‘Would you mind keeping your phone on, in case we need you before then?’

‘No problem,’ I said.

I watched them walk inside, Elise’s arm linked in Jackie’s, steadying her as the door closed behind them. I pulled into a nearby parking spot. I turned off the Uber app, indicating that I wasn’t working right now. I scooped up the money and counted it. Five hundred dollars – all in twenties. What I sometimes made in a week. I knew that the damage to the car would cost four times that. Just as I also knew that the idea of asking Elise’s charity for money to fix my car … no chance of me doing that.

I was hungry. I found a nearby food court and ordered sweet and sour pork and two egg rolls.

There was a couple next to me saying prayers over their General Tao Chicken. The slogan on the woman’s T-shirt said: Need Answers? Call Jesus. That was a call I wasn’t going to make, though another text from Todor landed on my screen:

Brendan – I know you’re out there. You can’t dodge this.

That last statement was indeed true. But I could dodge it for as long as it took to eat all this extra-greased bad Chinese food, enjoying the momentary MSG rush. There are times when stuffing your face with junk is the only way to combat the mess that has been swirling around you.

I took my time working my way through this fat-face meal. I walked to the edge of the parking lot and lit up a cigarette. My phone began to ring. Todor’s name popped up on the screen. I sucked down a lungful of smoke. I took the call.

‘So you finally deign to speak to me,’ he said.

‘I’ve had a busy day.’

‘Don’t I know it. The whole parish knows. And most of all your wife knows.’

‘I’m sure she does, thanks to that fanatic. Did you hear how Teresa broke my windshield and battered my car?’

‘Never mind that. She’s now under arrest for breaching the terms of her last suspended sentence.’

‘Good.’

‘Lose the uncharitable tone, Brendan. You shouldn’t have been driving those women to that place of fetal execution.’

‘It was a job, Father. Don’t act like I was making some political statement.’

‘Weren’t you at the abortion clinic in Van Nuys that was bombed?’