“That’s interesting,” I finally tell him.

“I’m not saying who it is,” he says.

“Right. I got that. Because that would be a violation.”

“Possibly,” he says. “Yes. But the truth is, he didn’t hire me.”

“So he wasn’t a client.”

“Like I said, it’s a sticky wicket,” he says. “He did come for legal advice.”

Diane brings more coffee. She’s worked here for twenty-five years and still has the worst timing in the food-service industry. We wait for her to finish pouring.

My heart is sinking, and I’m not sure why. When Dan doesn’t say anything for what seems like the longest time, I ask, “Is this going to be twenty questions, Dan?” I’m not irritated. I just need to know what the ground rules are here. I can see that he wants to tell me something important. It’s not idle gossip about someone we know.

He sets down his fork. “Adam came in about an adoption.”

I almost say, “My Adam?”

But I don’t.

“Adam Warner?”

“Yeah.”

“I didn’t know he and Sophie had wanted to adopt,” I say, whispering now because I know how keen the hearing is of the old man in the booth next to ours. I know that gossip travels faster than Wi-Fi in Shelton.

Dan’s expression is, well, expressionless. I can’t tell what he’s thinking as he sits across from me processing my question.

“Like I said, it wasn’t Mr. and Mrs.,” he says. “It was just Adam. It was after his wife was murdered.”

He’s losing me. I’m not sure what to make of what he’s saying.

“Did he say why, Dan?”

“Yeah. He said that he didn’t think he could manage the responsibility on his own.”

None of this makes sense.

“Then why would he come in to adopt another child?” I ask.

Dan looks down at the table and rubs his forehead. “You’re making me say everything.”

I wait for him to return my gaze. “Because you aren’t telling me anything. At least nothing I can grasp, Dan. Come on, now, tell me.”

“He was going to adopt out his little girl.”

I’m stunned. “Aubrey?”

“Yes.”

“To the Flynns?” I ask.

He shakes his head. “He wouldn’t say. It was going to be a private adoption, and he specifically didn’t want the Flynns involved. I told him they’d fight him and certainly win visitation. Maybe even full custody.”

I don’t say it, but I think it: This is the Adam Warner I know?

“What happened?”

Dan pushes his plate across the table and thankfully wipes the egg from the corners of his mouth. “Never came back. I figured once things calmed down he’d had a change of heart. Maybe didn’t want to go through with it. Grief and shock make a lot of people do the craziest things.”