So it was up to her. Maybe whatever hold Danielle had on her parents was here in this house, and it was up to Julia to find it. Make Gordon’s fear and anxiety work for her. Pretend she wasn’t hurt by Ned’s abandonment and Marland’s…insistence that she step into Ned’s role.

Ned greets her like everything’s sort of normal between them—is he for real, she wonders, or is he just in a grief-fueled daze?—and he walks her to his mother’s large closet.

“I can’t use any of this,” he says. “I thought maybe a church or a resale shop…What do you think?”

“Sure,” she says. She doesn’t want to say anything else to him. It’s easy for him to act like he doesn’t know what Marland has said, and maybe he doesn’t.

She surveys the closet. It’s a lot of professional wear, and she knows nothing about that, but this will let her search the closet. Wouldn’t it be likely, if Danielle had hidden something in the house, she would have done so in a room her son rarely ventured into? “I can organize it for you, count the number of items.” She tries to put a hint of enthusiasm into her voice.

“Before you came over,” he says, “I sat on the couch and just stared off into space for ten minutes.”

“Ned.” She’s so angry with him and at the same time she feels sorry for him. He’s never going to get over this, she realizes. He feels guilt about what happened to his mother. That is not something you shake. And here’s his father, telling him to bundle up his mother’s life, pack it up and give it away, and he’s just doing it.

“I’m sorry I didn’t answer your texts last night. My dad just kept talking at me. I don’t know what to do about anything,” he says. “I’ll talk to Marland about leaving you alone, Jules.” His voice is small.

It will make no difference, except then he can claim that he tried. “That’s fine,” she says. “I’ve got it handled. You have enough to worry about.”

“You do? Oh, good.” Now he’s absolved from responsibility. She can almost see the relief in his face. “Papa is sleeping in the guest room, so you can lay out clothes on the bed if that helps. Papa is working on her office.”

Danielle’s office is another interesting place where secrets could be hidden. But she can focus on only one room at a time and so she starts here.