“Something like that. Passes the time. You do what you want to do, but I thought you should know.”

“Thank you.”

We disconnect, and I slip the phone back into my pocket. Downstairs, I come across Lois and let her know Mercedes is still sleeping and shouldn’t be disturbed. I’m about to go into my study to carry on with business as usual, but I stop at the door and change course. I head to my mother’s cottage instead. Hers, too, allows for access from the back of the property. It’s a longer way, but if you don’t want to be seen from the main house, it does the trick. I find her car parked out front, the trunk open. One suitcase already inside.

Eyeing that, I climb the porch stairs and push open the door she’s left slightly ajar. Inside the small kitchen, I find a large plain box on the table with an envelope set against it addressed to Mercedes and myself. I don’t touch it, though, as I hear my mother’s footfalls coming down the stairs. She’s obviously carrying something heavy behind her. I hear the thud thud thud on the wooden steps.

She doesn’t see me right away as she mutters a curse, the wheel of the suitcase she’s bringing down having lodged itself between two of the rungs.

“Allow me,” I say, and she jumps. I give her a smile, reaching over her to take hold of the suitcase as my mother puts a little space between us. I dislodge the suitcase and set it on the floor beside the other smaller one and turn to her.

My mother clears her throat, and I realize how much older she is. Still slender and petite. Still attractive. But older.

“Were you going to slip out in the night?”

She has the grace to lower her lashes, a flush creeping up her neck to her cheeks as she glances at the window. “Not in the night, no,” she says, straightening to her full height of about five feet five inches and readying to face me.

I don’t know what she’s expecting. I’m not sure what I’m expecting. But I start. And I get right to it.

“What did you think to achieve sending that sheet to Santiago?” I hadn’t even known it was gone. Mercedes told me later Miriam had changed the sheets, but I hadn’t given it another thought.

She raises her chin. Aloof is always a defense she relies on. But her eyes give away the truth.

“I was just angry, Judge. So angry. I didn’t know she was pregnant.” Her shoulders slump, and she sets her hand on the back of one of the kitchen chairs.