“Yes, ma’am.” Grigor exited onto the sidewalk, smiling at the girls. “Raysa, Jani, if you’re more comfortable without your backpacks, I’ll help you carry them upstairs once you’re home.”

They happily shrugged out of their straps. He took both packs, leaned in through his door and set them on the front passenger seat.

Jani looked up at him. “Did our dad tell you our names?”

“Yes.” Smiling again. “He’s even showed me pictures.”

He held the rear door open as they got in, the older sister first, Raysa next. Then he shut it and turned to the principal’s assistant.

“Would you like me to call Mr. Musil so he knows I’ve picked them up?” he said.

“Oh, yes, that would be great. If you don’t mind.”

Grigor nodded. “No problem at all,” he said. “Have a wonderful day.”

A moment later, he got into the driver’s seat.

“Are we both buckled up?” he asked.

“Yes!” the girls answered together.

He smiled.

“That’s two for the price of one,” he said and angled into the street.

Giovanna watched him drive up the block and round the corner. Then she turned back into the school, thinking it wasn’t too often you got someone as pleasant and professional as Terrence from GoRide.

No wonder Mr. Musil kept him on his repeat list.

Leo was cabbing it up to the Terminal after having dropped Rachel off at her aunt’s when he saw the police barricades ahead of him on Tenth Avenue. He told the driver to pull over, skimmed his credit card and got out, weaving through streams of pedestrians.

As he reached the roadblock on Fifty-Third, he saw Morse a few yards beyond it with a bunch of policemen and civilians, all of them on the sidewalk near a line of parked taxis. He’d always been able to spot her from a distance. It was partly her blond hair, but it was also her tall, straight posture. There was never any mistaking her in a crowd.

He pulled out his phone, called her and waved. “Car! I’m over to your right.”

She turned, looked down the avenue and waved back, running toward him. She cut past a sawhorse, ran another half block, and then they were facing each other in the middle of the street.

She stood there looking at him, seeing the sorrow in his eyes, seeing the strain on his features, not really knowing what to say. She knew how much Ki had meant to him.

“Car,” he said and swallowed.

“Leo...”

Their eyes met.

And the next thing she knew they had their arms tightly around each other, and he was sobbing with his face in the hollow of her neck, the tears hot and wet.

Standing near the ambulance with Carmody and Kali, Musil yanked his phone from his pocket.