Kelly paused. “Why tell me at all? A complete stranger.”

He coughed and shook his head. “I suppose because I’m old. There’s little the law can do to me. My life is finished. I suppose if anyone should know the truth it should be you—who was hurt so badly by my son.”

“What you tell me now will remain between the two of us,” she promised.

He returned to his cigarette, seemed to search the cobwebs of his life.

“I killed her,” he said suddenly.

She jumped in her seat. “Pardon?”

“I was responsible for her death. Not intentionally, of course, but I killed her nevertheless. I kept the truth hidden from the police. I had my children to raise. When Maggie died I saw no point in going to jail.”

“Gene wasn’t an only child?”

“No. He has a younger brother.”

“Please continue.”

“Maggie was my childhood sweetheart. We met in high school. She was the only girl I ever kissed. I should show you a picture. She was the cutest thing—long brown hair, brown eyes large as God made them, such a laugh. We used to laugh a lot together in the early days. After the war, when I returned from Europe, we married and moved into this house. I remember it cost five thousand dollars. That seemed like an impossible sum to me. But not to Maggie, she always felt we could do anything.

“I should rephrase that. She was the one who felt she could do anything. Maggie was wild and full of energy. She had a reckless side, an impatience with life itself. It was part of her charm but it was a curse as well. Tonight, you see Trenton all around you. The population is ten thousand. It was half that in those days. I was the town doctor. I had a busy schedule. Time didn’t weigh on my hands. But when Gene was ten, I think the endless succession of bridge on Tuesdays and bowling on Saturdays began to wear on her. We’d recently had a new child, Scott, but it was just another burden to her. She would tell me she wasn’t happy. I heard her but I didn’t really. I should have seen the warning signs. I would come home from the office unexpectedly in the middle of the day and she wouldn’t be here. It got so we never made love. She began to act distracted and withdrawn. I was such a fool.”

“She was having an affair,” Kelly said.