“The initial appearance will be before the Justice Court judge, since Viola died in the county. That’s Charlie Noyes. Charlie won’t see Dad as a flight risk, and he’ll be skeptical about the crime, so I’m hoping for a decently low bond. Also, Shad promised try to arrange the timing of the arrest so that if the judge does set bail, we can process Dad through the system without him actually having to spend time in a cell.”

“Thank God. With all the drugs he needs just to keep going, I wouldn’t feel comfortable with him spending even an hour in jail.”

“Imagine him spending years in one.”

“I can’t. Annie’s right. That simply cannot happen.”

“If he doesn’t start talking to me tonight, it could.”

“We need more hot,” Caitlin says, extending one toned leg and turning the hot water tap with her toes. “Can you imagine any reason other than this paternity thing to explain Tom circling the wagons without you?”

“All I can work out is that he’s protecting someone. That’s all he’s ever tried to do, so why should he change now? The other option is that the Double Eagles have threatened our lives. The family, I mean. Possibly even Annie. You know Dad would take a bullet to protect her.”

“Any of you,” she says, squeezing my hand. “That’s why we have to protect him. Even from himself. As much as I love Tom, he has one major flaw. He’s from the Humphrey Bogart, Ernest Hemingway school.”

“He’s a stoic, all right. But that may not be the whole explanation. I know he has some secrets. There are definitely chapters of his life he’s never told me about.”

“Like?”

“Korea, for one. I know he was wounded there, but I don’t know how. I know he has a couple of medals, but only because my mother told me. Dad seems almost ashamed of them.”

“Didn’t he save Walt Garrity’s life over there?”

“Yes, and Walt saved his. But they’ve never told anyone how that happened—not even my mother.”

“That’s definitely weird.” Caitlin lifts her leg again, then hooks her big toe around the lever and pulls the tap closed. “I can’t stop thinking about Tom and Viola. Your mom certainly never gave me the idea that Tom ever cheated on her.”

“She wouldn’t, even if he had and she knew about it.”

“Oh, she’d know,” Caitlin said with certainty. “Peggy is smarter than all of us.”

This is a truth known only to our family, but none of us doubts it.

Caitlin runs her fingernails along my forearm. “If this somehow went as far as a trial, would you really not defend him?”

“Absolutely not. I’ve been thinking about Quentin Avery.”

She looks up in surprise. “The civil rights lawyer?”

“That’s right.”

“Didn’t he die?”