That was reassuring, sort of. After the business with my trunk, it made me tense to think of my cousin wandering around my apartment. Maybe she’d collected the Nellie Fox ball and hoped, with her usual optimism, that I wouldn’t notice it was gone.

“Then there’s that nice fella who just moved in, the musician: he’s been helping with the dogs, too,” Mr. Contreras added. “But Murray Ryerson, he’s been around, him and some other reporters. I told him he should be ashamed, acting like a hyena following after the lions, picking up the food they did all the work finding.”

Mr. Contreras has never been crazy about any of the men in my life, but for some reason he actively dislikes Murray. I deflected the complaint as best I could and patiently answered his questions. I even took his rough words of comfort in stride: I wasn’t to blame myself. Nuns who went around working for terrorists knew they were taking risks. It wasn’t my fault someone had fire-bombed her the night I chose to visit.

After he and I finished, I got the volunteer to dial my office so that I could speak with Marilyn, the temp. She was overwhelmed by phone calls. It hadn’t occurred to me, but of course I was a media sensation.

“If it bleeds, it leads” is the old news bromide. And, if a nun bleeds, it leads for days. Julian Bond had called, as had Willie Barrow and other prominent civil rights veterans. Immigrant rights activists had held a vigil outside the hospital, and two men Sister Frankie had helped free from death row were staging a hunger strike outside police headquarters, demanding action in finding her killers. Since I’d been with her when she was murdered, I was understandably a person of interest to the TV crews.

“They keep calling, and some have been here, thinking you were hiding out. What should I tell them?”

“That it will be a week before I’m well enough to talk to anyone, and they should go away and find blood someplace else.”

We went through the more manageable part of my incoming calls. The subcontractor doing surveillance for me in Mokena. Some outstanding reports to clients, which I managed to dictate to her. And messages to various other clients, to tell them I’d be back in my office within the week and would talk to them then.

In the afternoon, I was wheeled to the ophthalmology department, and my eyes were unbandaged. Although the doctor had the blinds pulled and the overhead lights turned off, even the murky gray light made me wince. At first, I could see nothing but spark-filled spirals. After a few minutes, though, shapes swam into focus.