We started with a welcome-home dinner for Day, including a lot of his favorites: Caesar salad for everyone, with anchovies for me; Nana’s sloppy joes in sourdough bowls that the younger two had hollowed out; and Jannie’s monkey bread for dessert. It was the first time she’d ever made the bread by herself, without Nana’s help. Everything about Day’s visit was happy and sad at the same time.

It was interesting to see the changes around the house through Damon’s eyes. Jannie, Ali, and I had gotten used to Bree coordinating schedules, helping with homework, and putting meals on the table. For Damon, though, it was all new. Mostly, he didn’t comment other than a lot of “thank yous,” which were much appreciated by Bree.

I waited until we’d heard about life at Cushing Academy and had enjoyed our meal together before I steered the conversation around to Nana Mama.

“Let’s talk about it,” I finally said.

Jannie gave a sigh. She was the one who kept the most informed, but emotionally, I think this was harder for her than anyone. She and Nana were incredibly close; they did everything together, and had since Jannie was a baby.

“What do you mean, Dad?” Damon asked. “We all know what’s going on. Don’t we?”

“Just what I said—we should talk. Nana could get better soon. That’s what we’re hoping for. Or she could be in a coma for a while. It’s also possible… that she won’t wake up again.”

“She could die,” Jannie said, a little rudely. “We get it, Dad. Even Ali does.”

I looked over at Ali, but he seemed all right so far. In his way, he was older than his age. Both Nana and I had talked to him like an adult, respected his intelligence, since he was around four years old. One of my theories, and Nana’s, about raising kids is that you cannot give them too much love, but that the environment inside your house has to bear a relationship to what they will face on the outside. So no excess coddling or making excuses for unacceptable behavior.

I nodded Janelle’s way. “We all get it. We’re all sad and we’re angry. C’mere, everybody. Maybe I’m the only one who needs a little help right now.”

We gathered close for a group hug, and it was better that way, thinking about Nana without speaking.

Bree was the first to break down, and then everybody was in tears. No shame in that, nothing but love on display. That may not work for all families, but it sure does for us.

Chapter 82

BY MONDAY, I was ready to make my next move on the case. Her name was Wylie Rechler, although her readers knew her simply as “Jenna.” She’d been helpful to the FBI and Metro before; in particular, she had aided Vice.

Wylie Rechler was DC’s answer to Cindy Adams and Perez Hilton, with a hugely popular gossip blog called Jenna Knows. She’d used it to break a couple of smaller Washington stories over the years—Angelina Jolie’s nomination to the Council on Foreign Relations, Barack Obama’s closet cigarette habit—but most of her space was dedicated to the social and sex lives of the “people who matter most,” as her home page called them.