He watched as Tommy turned to Ed and said, his voice quiet and cold, “He knew exactly what he was doing.”

Silence. Nobody at this point knew how to intervene, and instead Malcolm felt they were all watching Tommy with nervous fascination to see what he would do next.

“You’re not being honest about who he was,” Tommy said. He’d taken his eyes off Ed and was staring down at his empty cheese plate, so it wasn’t clear if he was addressing Ed or all of them. He seemed to Malcolm to be utterly sober now, unlike everyone around him. “A good man does not murder his family. He wasn’t ever a good man. Don’t pretend it was a moment of madness just to make yourselves feel better.”

There was a long, helpless silence, into which Ed nodded drunkenly once or twice, though he couldn’t seem to look at Tommy. It was Mary who finally spoke, perhaps because she and Chris hadn’t even been here and so were surely exempt from the blame attached to the rest of them. She said, “I’m so sorry, Tommy. It must have been so hard.”

And this simple comment seemed to be as close to the right thing to say as was possible when clearly there was no right thing to say. Tommy sighed, rolled back his shoulders, and gave a small nod.

“Coffee?” Fiona said suddenly. “Who’d like some coffee? Or a nice cup of tea?”

“Aye, that’d be lovely,” Kathy said, at the same time as Gavin said, “Good idea, Fi. That’s just what we need.”

Looking at Tommy, Malcolm felt it was up to him to end this ordeal, not just for Tommy and himself, but for all of them. Nonetheless, he knew they couldn’t leave immediately, not with Tommy’s words still hanging in the air. That would make the thing seem worse, not better. No, they would have to get through coffee—half an hour maximum, he calculated—and then, finally, it would be over.

And somehow they all muddled through the next twenty minutes, sticking to neutral topics as they sipped their coffee (Malcolm gulped his down quickly), Kathy and Mary making heroic efforts to get the conversation back on track by speaking of their children, of who would be home to visit and when. At last Malcolm judged enough time had passed that he and Tommy could make their escape.

He said, “I think we’d better be off, Fiona. It’s getting late.”

“Come on now, Malcolm,” she said. “There’s no rush. Tommy hasn’t even finished his coffee.”

“It’s O.K.,” Tommy said, taking a final sip from his cup. “I’m done.”

Malcolm added, “I have to be up early tomorrow for Robert. And Tommy’s had a long day too.” Why had he added that? Tommy wasn’t a child.