The bleeding had started Sunday night. Diamond noticed it just before she went to bed, and had no idea how concerned she should be. She was able to put it out of her mind and go to sleep, hoping that it would stop by the morning.

When she awoke on Monday morning, though, she was still spotting. It was at that point that her heart started racing. The speed with which human emotions could swing awed her. Less than a week before, she probably would have welcomed a miscarriage. At that point, she was unsure that she wanted a child, but she was nominally a Catholic, and notwithstanding her lack of formal religious instruction, she still had an unyielding guilt at the idea of an abortion. A miscarriage would have taken the decision out of her hands and limited her sense of responsibility. Now, only a few days later, she had decided that she wanted the baby, and so the thought of a miscarriage was unbearable and struck terror into her very soul.

Cormack hadn’t been home in two days and she couldn’t talk to Buddy about her situation—she hadn’t even told him about the pregnancy yet. She realized that she would need to deal with this on her own.

She called her doctor and made an emergency appointment. The nurse on the other end of the line was polite and reassuring, but Diamond could sense the disinterest in her voice. She supposed it was inevitable for someone who spent her entire life dealing with pregnant women. Diamond got dressed in sweats, slipping a maxi pad into her panties. Then she hurried downstairs.

Joe Konicki was sitting at the kitchen table, just where he’d been sitting when she went to bed. He was wearing the same clothes, and she wondered whether he’d slept at all.

He was older than Cormack—she was guessing in his mid-sixties—with a head of white hair and thick veins covering his nose. For his age, though, he looked like a powerful man, with a barrel chest and wrists like knotted ropes. She guessed that he had spent his entire lifetime on the waterfront, and it showed in every aspect of his appearance. He glanced up when she walked into the kitchen.

“How’d you sleep?” he asked. His voice was gravelly but kind.

“OK,” she said. “You?”

He shrugged.

“I have to go out,” she said. “I have an appointment I have to go to.”

He stood, looking uncomfortable. “I’m not supposed to let you out of the house,” he said, his voice uncertain.

“You can’t actually keep me here against my will,” Diamond said. “That’d be kidnapping.”

“Cormack told me to do whatever I have to do to keep you from leaving,” Joe said. It was a simple statement of fact, with little apology. “He was real clear about that. It’s for your own safety.”