Mitch took a sip of his orange juice and felt another pang of guilt for not having made more of an effort to reach out to Danny, now that he knew there must have been serious problems in his life. This was one time his sniffer certainly had not worked.

That night at Johnny’s something had been different about Danny. He and Rachel had arrived early, and they were involved in what appeared to be a heated exchange when Mitch and Carolyn walked in. They both immediately went from pained expressions to happy greetings and wide smiles. However, when Mitch and Danny had their usual man hug, Mitch noticed a reticence from Danny, and, over dinner, he seemed guarded and withdrawn. He remembered thinking that Danny seemed preoccupied all evening. Was it possible he was already contemplating this horrible deed? Mitch preferred to think not—that something out of the blue had just happened to suddenly trigger a terrible series of events. It must have been some unexpected emotional explosion, rather than a plot. He would have been surprised but not shocked if Danny and Rachel had announced they were breaking up. And, while it seemed as though every segment of Dateline had a story about a guy killing his wife or vice versa, it was inconceivable that Danny would ever harm his children. He rarely even raised his voice to them; even when they were misbehaving and doing things that would anger most fathers, Danny would simply let them be.

He remembered his last glimpse of the two of them: that night, walking to their car down the hill from the restaurant, engaged in conversation. He waved, but they didn’t notice. Mitch had the sense that something was wrong. For some reason, something told him just to stand there and watch them. They got smaller and smaller and finally turned the corner.

He said something to Carolyn about his concerns as he started the car, but they let the subject drop, involved in whatever issues were going on in their lives at the moment. He never could have imagined that when they disappeared into the shadows, it would be the last time he would ever see them.

Now Mitch didn’t know what to make of the person he had known for more than twenty years. Was he a monster who plotted to murder his wife and child, or someone who was mentally deranged, who, for some incomprehensible reason, committed the ultimate evil and then punished himself by taking his own life?