Mitch continued to be concerned about Carolyn, but he was hopeful that after the funeral, when they returned home later that day, they would at least get back into the rhythm of things. He hoped that she would be able to move on, but he feared he was deluding himself.

Rachel had been a daily part of Carolyn’s life since they had met back in high school. They wouldn’t make a move without consulting each other, whether about little things, such as which color curtains to buy, or more serious matters. It wasn’t the same for Mitch and Danny, not by a long shot. Carolyn had been as close to Rachel as she was to anyone in her life, barring her immediate family. Rachel could always be counted on to get Carolyn out of a funk, or to help her stop fretting about whatever was plaguing her. They would calm each other down when one of them would conjure up the sort of frightening scenario mothers create in the middle of the night. Minutes after picking up the phone, Rachel would have Carolyn laughing at herself, or she’d share some ridiculous story or juicy gossip and, before Mitch knew it, all her concerns would fade away.

Mitch’s heart was broken as well over this tragedy, but his defense mechanism allowed him to compartmentalize things. He was mainly dumbfounded by Danny’s actions and, frankly, furious at him. It turned out there had been a pretty hefty insurance policy on Rachel, so his motive might have been money. But if money was the problem, why couldn’t Danny just swallow his pride and ask for help? It was a sort of open secret that Rachel had caught him cheating on her a few years back, and every once in a while Rachel would make some oblique reference to it, but they seemed to have weathered that storm.

He wouldn’t rest until he found out what had caused Danny to do what he did. No matter how many times he played it over in his head, there were still just too many unanswered questions, beginning with why he did it, why he thought he could get away with such an idiotic idea, what Logan had to do with it, and how he possibly could have murdered his own son and abandoned his eight-year-old son to deal with the devastation he had wrought. And, hanging over all these questions, was the one that was so loathsome that he couldn’t allow himself to go there—the manner of death. The sheer carnage.