“Not everyone passes muster with the home study or the background check. Danielle mentioned a weird couple a few months ago. It didn’t work out, and they blamed her.”

Iris hasn’t thought of this, her mind a steady whirl of just dealing with Danielle’s death. “But them falling short is not her fault.”

“Blame the messenger.” Susan straightens her eyeglasses. “You know how emotionally volatile her business could be. All those people left hanging when Russia cut off foreign adoptions, and I know some of them told her they’d have kids if she’d ‘acted’ faster. Like she could control Russian government policy or pride.”

“Ned said she was arguing with someone on a phone he didn’t recognize as hers.” Ned said that in his statement. She shouldn’t repeat it. But she has. She glances around, but no one’s near them, except a boy on a laptop, but he has on big heavy headphones and is paying them no mind. Iris can, just barely, hear the thrum of his music.

“So she had a new phone.”

“Another phone.”

They all ponder the meaning of this.

“A boyfriend,” Francie says. “A secret boyfriend.”

“She wouldn’t cheat on Mike,” Iris says.

“I never got the Mike situation. They didn’t seem a good match,” Susan says.

“Mike adores her,” Francie says.

“I’m sure he does. I’m talking about how she felt about him.” Susan frowns.

“Mike is wonderful,” Iris says, feeling she should defend Mike, who’s taking care of Ned right now. Susan watches her, as if she wants to say more, but she doesn’t.

“So, an unhappy client or a mystery man.” Georgina sips her coffee.

“Why would she be on a phone her kid doesn’t recognize with an unhappy client?”

“It’ll be a man at the heart of this,” Susan says. “It always is.”

They sit, quiet, not disagreeing with her. Wishing it weren’t so.

“We could find out,” Francie says.

“The police are on it.” Susan frowns.

“It might be a new phone…if someone was hassling her. Maybe she switched phones,” Iris says. Carefully. “To avoid their calls.”

“You think that couple that got turned down?” Francie asks. “She said the dad just lost his temper entirely, ranted and raved. He scared her. She didn’t tell me their names. She didn’t want to violate confidentiality.”

“We could find out,” Susan says, warming to the idea. “I mean, we can ask around. So many of her clients came to her by word of mouth.”

“But why would they kill her now?” Georgina asks. “Why not then, when they were at their angriest?”

“I think,” Iris says, “that this couple should be checked and eliminated, by the police.”

“Surely they’re going through her computer and her client list,” Susan says.