“I’m sorry,” she forced herself to say. “I’m tired, and there has been a lot to deal with.”

“Of course, and you don’t have to apologize. The kids and I, we were just worried…about you.”

“Are they okay?”

“Yes and no, I guess. I mean, in truth, they hardly knew Clare. But then again, she was so famous, and their aunt. I think it’s a little weird for them to process too. Grieving for someone the whole world knows of, if not well. They’ve been getting calls from their friends, saying how sorry they are about their aunt dying. I think it’s just hard for them to know how to feel, never mind how to respond. Mostly I think they just want you to come home.”

“Me too,” Eileen whispered into the phone.

“When is your flight back again? Everything happened so fast, and you left in such a rush I don’t even know when your flight home is.”

“The funeral is tomorrow; I’m flying out the day after.”

“We’ll pick you up. What time?”

“I have your car at the airport,” Eileen reminded him.

“Oh, that’s right…” For several seconds, silence stretched out again between them. Eileen knew her husband well enough to know something else was going on with him. “Hey,” he finally said, his voice again pitchy and uncertain. “Completely off topic, but did you happen to save that paperwork from Carl about the insurance? You said he left it on my car?”

That was it, she suddenly realized. Under normal circumstances, there was absolutely no reason Eric would bring up insurance paperwork neither of them wanted or needed right now. Something had happened, and Eric was scared. Eileen touched the photos on the counter, shifting them again across the white marble.

“Yes, I have them,” she said.

“Good. That’s good. We should look into that,” he said, but Eileen could hear that his mind was somewhere else. “I don’t suppose you’ve had a chance to look at them?”

“Not really.” She pushed the photos together into a pile. “I’ve been busy.”

“God, of course. Such a stupid question.”

“Yes,” she answered like a blunt instrument. “It was stupid.” She could hardly believe she said that. They had never spoken to each other like that.

The silence settled between them again, like they were both trying to figure out some new reality. “Eileen, when you get home, we should talk.”

“About what?” she dared him.

He knew she knew. Or at least, he suspected that she might know about him and Lauren. Something had happened since she last spoke with him. Either Lauren’s husband, Dave, not receiving an answer to his first threat, had approached Eric again, or Eric had spoken with Carl and learned there was no insurance paperwork. For Eric to sound this scared and uncharacteristically unsure, Eileen was guessing it was Dave again.