This time her answer is longer in coming. “Your father’s no fool, Penn. He knows what he’s doing.”

“You didn’t look so sure of that in court this morning.”

“Well, that was upsetting, naturally. But Judge Noyes did the right thing in the end.”

“The situation has changed now. Dad’s bail could be revoked at any time.”

“Oh, no.”

“Don’t panic, Mom. But I need to ask you a simple question.”

“Oh, Penn … I don’t like this.”

“I’ve never known you to lie, and I need to know the answer to this.”

Silence.

Before anxiety can stop me, I ask what I’ve withheld up to now because of my reluctance to upset my mother. “I need to know what time Dad got home on the night Viola died.”

The silence that follows this lasts longer than it should.

“What are you really asking me?” she says softly.

I close my eyes, already regretting my question. “Just a fact, nothing more.” Tell me it was before 5:38 A.M.

“You don’t really believe your father could have killed Viola, do you? Tell me you don’t believe that.”

“I don’t. But I’d like to be able to prove that he didn’t.”

A long, pained sigh comes down the line. “Is this just between you and me?”

Oh, God. “Yes.”

“I don’t know what time Tom got home that night. It was very late, and I’d taken a second pill by that time.”

I’ve never known my mother to be so out of it that she didn’t know when Dad got home—especially during the past few years. She waits up for him like a helicopter mom praying for a teenager to get in. “Best guess, Mom. What time was it?”

“I don’t know for sure. I really don’t.”

“You said it was very late, so you obviously have a general idea.”

“After three,” she says at length. “I was dead to the world, honestly.”

After three … “Mom—”

“Could anybody be taping this call?” she asks sharply.

My stomach does a little flip. “No. That’s just on TV.” This isn’t exactly accurate, but Shad will assume that I’ve warned Dad against any dangerous discussions on the telephone, and Judge Elder isn’t likely to authorize a wiretap from the Mayo Clinic. “Why do you ask, Mom?”

“Because whatever time your father needs to have gotten home that night, that’s what time I remember him getting home. He was right beside me in this bed. You hear me?”

My heart thumps, hard. No. I didn’t hear that.

“Just make sure I know the right time. Before it’s life-or-death.”