“What do you think the coroner’s final verdict will be, Al?” She had to check her own voice now; she hadn’t come to terms with Will’s death at all. Four weeks had passed, and she still expected him to ring at any minute. How could someone so alive be gone? He was one of the worst casualties of her failed marriage to Alex—the brother she’d never had herself. Kind and funny with her, indulgent with Max, he was always the first to answer an SOS call if Alex wasn’t free. She’d miss him dreadfully. Could anyone but God even begin to guess what Alex and Henry must be going through?

“It will probably be accidental death—resulting from a cranial aneurysm. Unless they conclude that the hemorrhage was triggered by a previous head injury Will was aware of. That would change it to misadventure. But they’re not looking at anything more unusual. Dents on the helmet confirm that he wasn’t even traveling fast. Just the unhappy coincidence of fog and tiredness, they suggest. And if you believe that, you’ll believe the world is still flat.”

Anna couldn’t answer him. She agreed. She could see Will wrecking his back, breaking a leg, gashing himself with his tools, burning himself because he was always talking while he cooked. Never could she imagine he would miss a bend or crash into a bridge on that bike of his. He loved it, and rode it with style. She’d giggled like a teenager when he’d first come to show it to her and Max. “I’ve never had a bike that’s so easy to do wheelies on—it feels like the front wheel is on a loop, and you can reel it up and down like a yo-yo just by twitching the throttle: watch me!” He’d ripped down Crabtree Lane, got the revs up, and launched himself toward them, the wheel leaping up to the squeals of delight of her son and his uncle and the consternation of the neighbors. No, she thought, Will wouldn’t crash the bike. He cared for it far too much.

“Daddy, please come and see the Sims.” Max, impatient on the stairs again, made the word “please” last an age. “I’ve made the whole family look like us. You’ve got to look at them all. Your Sim even forgot to shave properly—just like you have today. It’s weird.”

It was true, and it made Anna laugh. Alex had had such a succession of early calls, and been so pushed for time generally, he’d grown a little five o’clock shadow—very unusual for him, though Anna was noticing it looked rather sexy and relaxed like the Alex of old. Will always teased him about his neatness, and would have enjoyed the joke.