“The thing is,” Joe continued, “I was crazy about you the first time I saw you. I felt . . . I felt there was something there. And yes, of course, you were married. I wasn’t going to try to break up a marriage. But when I came onto the accident, I guess . . . look, I love you. I do. I love you, and I love your kids, and I think we’ve really had a good thing. I know . . . I know not calling right away, I know that was wrong, but he was never right for you. I mean, he was a good man and all, I’m not saying he wasn’t. But I always knew I could offer you more.”

The color had drained from Sandra’s face.

“Oh my God,” she said. Then, in a whisper, as a tear ran down her cheek, she said, “Adam?”

“Like I said, I’m sorry, I truly am. I didn’t make him fall asleep at the wheel. I didn’t make him drive into that tree. That’s not on me. It’s not like I ran him off the road. I just . . . I just didn’t make the call.”

Sandra could barely get out the words. “You . . . watched him . . . die . . .”

Joe was starting to get the sense that Sandra was shocked by what he’d told her. He said, “I don’t know how Kyle figured it out. He was . . . resourceful.”

Sandra said, “He didn’t tell me you killed Adam. I was talking about Ruskin.”

Now it was Joe’s turn to be stunned. “But . . . how . . .”

“Kyle knew it wasn’t Ruskin that helped him. So there’d be no reason for Ruskin to confess.”

Katie and Archie were frozen to the ground where they stood, stunned by hearing what had really happened to their father.

Joe was slowly shaking his head. “I was . . . I was doing the right thing. If they’d tried to save him, he’d . . . he could have been in a coma for years. It was better . . . better to let him . . .”

Sandra brought the gun up higher and pointed it directly at his head.

“Christ, Sandra, you’re not going to shoot me.”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I might.”

“You can’t. You wouldn’t.” He chortled. “I’m a police officer! You can’t shoot a police officer! They’ll send you to jail.”

“I doubt that,” she said. “Not when they find out what you helped Kyle do.”

“I did that for us! For us, Sandra! He—he made it possible for me to put my mother in . . . in a center, so we could move in—”

“Oh, Jesus, just stop!” she screamed at him. “Just shut the fuck up!”

“Sandra, put the gun down. I won’t go for mine. I’ll just . . . I’ll just walk away.”

She didn’t move. The gun stayed pointed at his head. She said, “I think I will shoot you.”