The old man continued to plead his case. “Ultraviolet light,” he called over his shoulder. “Go over the bodies with ultraviolet light…”

Eph froze. Had he just heard that?

“Then you will see I am right,” yelled the old man, being folded into the backseat of a cruiser. “Destroy them. Now. Before it is too late…”

Eph watched them slam the door on the old man, the cop climbing behind the wheel and pulling away.

Excess Baggage

EPH’S CALL RANG through forty minutes late to his, Kelly’s, and Zack’s fifty-minute session with Dr. Inga Kempner, their court-appointed family therapist. He was relieved not to be sitting inside her first-floor office in a prewar brownstone in Astoria, the place where the final custody issues were to be decided.

Eph pled his case through the doctor’s speakerphone. “Let me explain—I’ve been dealing all weekend with the most extreme of circumstances. This dead-airplane situation out at Kennedy. It couldn’t be helped.”

Dr. Kempner said, “This isn’t the first time you’ve failed to present yourself at an appointment.”

“Where’s Zack?” he said.

“Out in the waiting area,” said Dr. Kempner.

She and Kelly had been talking without him. Things had already been decided. It was all over before it had even begun.

“Look, Dr. Kempner—all I ask is that you reschedule our appointment…”

“Dr. Goodweather, I am afraid that—”

“No—wait—please, hold on.” He cut right to it. “Look, am I the perfect father? No, I’m not. I admit that. Points for honesty, right? In fact, I’m not even sure I’d want to be the ‘perfect’ father, and raise some plain vanilla kid who’s not going to make a difference in this world. But I do know that I want to be the best father I can be. Because that is what Zack deserves. And that is my only goal right now.”

“All appearances to the contrary,” said Dr. Kempner.

Eph gave his phone the finger. Nora stood just a few feet away. He felt angry, yet strangely exposed and vulnerable.

“Listen to me,” said Eph, fighting hard to keep his cool. “I know that you know I have rearranged my life around this situation, around Zack. I established this office in New York City specifically so that I could be here, near his mother, so that he would have the benefit of us both. I—usually—have very regular hours during the week, a dependable schedule, with established off-call times. I’m working doubles on weekends in order to have two off for every one I’m on.”

“Did you attend an AA meeting this weekend?”

Eph grew silent. All the air went out of his tires. “Were you even listening?”

“Have you felt the need to drink?”

“No,” he grunted, making a supreme effort to keep his cool. “I’ve been sober twenty-three months, you know that.”