I froze, and we watched each other for a long moment before I could come up with a response. “Sorry?”

The detective shrugged and placed both hands on the desk in front of him. “It’s been almost two weeks since you dropped him off, and now with the murder, 115 West Oak is all over the news,” he said. “I’m just wondering, since August 1, have you had any reason to go back to that apartment?”

I blinked.

“Mrs. Wilson?”

They needed to know the critical facts.

“Mrs. Wilson?” he said. “Did you ever go back after that night?”

Not the tiny, unimportant things.

“No,” I said, maintaining eye contact. “I never went back.”

PART 1

the week before the night in question

Chapter 1

Paula

Seven days before

Keith was asleep when I got home after dropping off Lotti. He’s always asleep, his body folded up in the sheets like piles of extra laundry. During bad weeks, he can sleep for ten, twelve, fourteen hours at a time. I never know when to wake him, so I don’t.

There’s always a brown-tinted glass on the nightstand. It wasn’t there before, not for the first thirteen years of our life together, but now it’s always there, whiskey-stained decor in our small, two-bedroom home on Chicago’s northwest side. Empty except for the last amber drop of evidence. It’s rare that I actually see Keith drinking it, though the smell of liquor is always there.

I lay on the bed beside him for about an hour every night, the scent tickling the back of my nose, making me just the slightest bit queasy. Those sixty minutes hurt like hell. My doctor, Marilyn Keyes, said it’s normal, even though she seemed surprised when I told her how much it hurt.

“What does it feel like, Paula?” she had asked a few months back.

“An epidural,” I had said, and her eyes widened. “Or at least what I imagine an epidural feels like. I’ve never had a baby. Is that normal?”

“That you’ve never had a baby?”

“No. That it hurts to stay in bed when I can’t sleep.”

“Well…” I could almost see her brain working. “It’s a pretty strong emotional response. But there’s plenty of evidence that links psychological state to physical symptoms. Caregivers have a wide range of emotional responses, so the insomnia is not unusual. I’d say what you’re experiencing is normal…but we should monitor it for a few weeks.”