“Maybe it will,” I say. “At least I’m admitting I’m a failure as a writer. How’s that novel you’ve been claiming to write for the last five years?”

“It’s mine,” he says. “Not plagiarized.”

“Touché,” I say. “Madeline was a better writer than either of us. Sometimes students come along like that, and we have to accept we’ll never be as good as we want to be. Maybe we all have to admit that our lives aren’t going to be what we hoped for. Fortunately, Madeline left this book and story behind, and she’ll get credit for them now. The credit she deserves.”

“A lot of good that will do her.”

“You’re right. I have to live with that. And I will. It’s all I can do. I’ve lived with stuff before, so I’m going to do it again.”

Preston just stares at me. So does Grendel.

So I say, “Sophia called the main line to the English Department a couple of times before she was murdered. Not to talk to Carrie about internships, but to talk to you. About Lance. And it all went wrong somehow. I figure you could try to tell your side of things and get out in front of it before the police come for you. You could try to live with it too.” I check my watch. “And the police are on the way now. I told my lawyer to get them and meet us here. Now. You called them on me, in this very house. I thought I’d return the favor.”

Preston stands up. “Goddamn it, Connor. What are you dragging into my home? Kelly and the kids will be here soon.”

“It would be tough for me to believe all of this, Preston, except you left the building this morning. I came roaring in, heading right to Lance’s classroom. I expected you to show up behind me, to calm things down. I kept looking for you. But you weren’t there. There was trouble brewing, and you weren’t around. Why did you leave at the moment that seemed tailor-made for you?”

“I had a meeting,” he says.

“Did you? Or were you afraid of what loose-tongued Lance would say in front of me? In front of everybody up on the roof?”

Preston walks out of the room without saying anything. I can hear movement in the back of the house, down the hallway where the bedrooms are. I stand up, and Grendel looks at me and wags his tail. He looks like he wants to go home.