“You haven’t known Jana very long at all,” Opa said.

Izabel thought about that. She said, “Sometimes love is a decision.”

Opa nodded.

“I told you things in confidence,” Izabel said.

“I know. Maybe I shouldn’t have offered to be your therapist.” Opa took a big breath. “We’re getting ahead of ourselves.”

    Chapter Twenty-Seven

Kaito and Izabel were brought back together again after their interviews. They were put in a room with a one-way mirror and a speaker so they could watch Opa with Cami.

Izabel wanted to know how Kaito’s interview went, if they were asked the same questions, if he lied at any point. But that’s not what Kaito wanted to know.

“You want to be bait?” he said.

“I don’t want to be bait, but I want him caught. And it makes sense, doesn’t it?”

“Can’t they figure this out without us?” he said.

“I don’t know.”

He turned to watch Opa.

“Are you going to let me do it?” Izabel asked.

But he didn’t respond. He watched Opa and Cami playing with LEGOs at a small table in the other room. There were a lot of hospital-related figurines and tiny hospital beds and what looked like a metal stand with a bag of fluids, except it was all gray, all just shapes, not discrete from each other. And then there were police figurines, EMTs, an ambulance. And there were superheroes, too, like Superman. And plenty of people not dressed like anything in particular. There was even a playground set that looked like something they had at home.

Opa asked Cami to put together the scene that scared her, and then Opa moved behind her.

“I’m going to tap on your shoulders, if that’s okay.”

“That’s okay,” Cami said.

As Cami built the scene—laying a woman in the hospital bed, putting police in a circle around the bed, putting two more people outside that circle of police—Opa tapped on Cami’s shoulders, one after the other, perfectly rhythmic, perfectly paced, all her fingers out, and the flat of her middle finger doing the tapping.

“Can you describe the scene to me?” Opa said.

“It’s my mom.”

“Which one?”

“In the bed.”

“Are you there?”

“That’s me, and that’s Dad.”

“Why are you all the way over there?” Opa asked, still tapping.

“The police said we couldn’t see her.”

“Was your mom asleep or awake?”

“She looked hurt.”

“If you could’ve changed that scene, any way you like, with any of the LEGOs here, how would you change it?”