I told Robbie about the conversation while helping him decide whether he wanted caramel or chocolate sauce on his sundae. He had lost weight, his soft chubbiness replaced by something worse, a kind of gaunt hunger.

“You’ve lost weight too, Ms. Warshawski. Was that because of being in jail? Was jail as horrible as this camp? You don’t want ice cream?”

I’m not much of a sweets eater, but I got a cone to keep him company. As we ate our ice cream, Robbie sketched a plan of the Baladine house for me—where Baladine’s study was, where the controls for the house security system were, and where the surveillance cameras were trained. I had explained I wanted to know because it had to do with Nicola’s death.

“But I want to use the information to—well, in part to get your father to stop trying to destroy me and my business, and in part to pay him back for the miseries I endured in the prison he runs. I want you to think carefully before you betray your parents to me.”

His tear–streaked face contorted in angry hurt. “Don’t start preaching the Ten Commandments to me like they do here. I know I’m supposed to honor my father and mother, but how come they never think of me? It’s like there’s something horrible wrong with me, I know they wish I’d disappear on them, I wish I could, I wish I was strong enough to kill myself.”

I gave him what awkward consolation I could—not that deep down his parents really loved him, but that deep down he was a fine and unusual person and that he needed to hold on to that idea. After we had talked for a time, I was relieved to see him start to look happier. I asked him if he wanted more time to think over what I wanted to do, but he said it was fine with him, as long as Utah didn’t get hurt.

“She’s kind of a brat, but I like her.”

“I don’t think anyone’s going to get hurt. Not physically, anyway, although I’m hoping your father may have to find a new job, perhaps in a different city. That may be hard on your mother.”

He ate another ice cream while he helped me draw up plans of the interior of the house. Afterward we sat and talked, about life and what could lie in store for him after he outgrew Eleanor and BB. I hadn’t noticed the shadows drawing in on the town; we were going to be late for taps. I bustled Robbie into the rental car and drove like mad for the camp.