“I know you can’t let me go. So I’ve decided to take my leave. Today, when Jimmy helps me, I will be the one in control. He’ll give me the phone he uses to control the applicator. I will be the one pressing the button. It’s my choice. Jimmy has agreed to help me. I don’t want you to hold it against him or take your anger out on him. If you take it out on him, you’re taking it out on me. He’s helping me. And he’s helping you, Orv.

“Oh, Orv. I love you so much. And I know you’re afraid. Afraid of losing me. Of losing me forever. But you should know it’s not like that. In this world or the next, you will never lose me. I’m by your side. I’m by your side right now as you watch this. And I always will be. I love you, my husband. My darling Orv.”

The video stopped, and there was nothing in the room but the sound of an old, very tired man, crying and missing his wife and calling her name.

“She made this just before?” Trimble asked, if for no other reason than to fill the room with something to say.

I nodded. “Yes.”

“Why didn’t we know? Why didn’t Jimmy tell us?”

“I think he meant to. I think he was trying to find a way when Mr. Wooldridge attacked him. And then you and security hustled him out of the house.”

“How did you know? About this video?”

“I was left a note. It said that Jimmy had asked one of the security team to find a camera and a memory card to record on. When Jimmy gave the camera back, the memory card was gone. We found it tonight at his apartment.”

“It can’t be,” Wooldridge said, keening. “It can’t be. She wasn’t tired. She wasn’t sad. She didn’t want to leave.”

“Mr. Wooldridge,” I said. “Do you remember the last time your wife was dispatched before she died?”

“What?” Wooldridge looked up at me.

“The dispatch before the last. You remember it.”

“What about it?”

“Where did she appear after she was dispatched?”

“On the Fairy Tale. On our boat.”

“And she liked the boat, I’m guessing.”

“She did. She loved taking it out on the lake. We would go out, the two of us. We’d watch the sun set. Sometimes we stayed out all night.”

“Sir, the last time we talked you pointed out that when people are dispatched, they always return home.”

“Yes.”

“It’s not quite true, sir. People always return. But they return to a place they love. They return to a place they feel safe.”

“I don’t understand.”