Ignoring me, Gemma-Kate went to the fridge, got out the container of Cherry Garcia, popped off the lid with her thumb, grabbed a tablespoon that was in the dish drainer, and started eating out of the container, all without losing her train of thought as she came back to the couch.

“And what about Smith changing his confession to take responsibility for all the murders, and Hickock agreed to it, and no one, not a single person, ever pressed him on why. Why did he take responsibility for killing all four people?”

When I heard her mention a confession I gave up on expressing outrage over the desecration of my book and went to fetch the sketch from my office and the letter from my carry-on. I put them on the coffee table in front of her. “You get a sticky note anywhere near these and you die,” I said.

Gemma-Kate gazed first at the sketch and then at the letter, and then at me with all her questions in her eyes. I’ll be damned if she didn’t lose her composure for the first time ever, her voice trembling as she said, “Why didn’t you show me this when I was here the first time?”

Carlo explained that he wanted to surprise me with the sketch as an anniversary present, and that we didn’t know about the letter until the framer found it.

“Do you know what this means?” she asked.

I was enjoying too much breaking through her usual cool lack of affect to let the moment go. I let her dangle there before saying, “With you coming in the door without knocking I’m thinking it means I need to have the locks changed before your uncle Carlo and I want to make love again.”

Gemma-Kate gazed at the letter the way some people would look at a sliver of the true cross. “That does it. I’m writing a book. Do you have the confession?”

“That’s one of the reasons I’m going to Florida tomorrow, to talk to the detective who talked to the priest.”

Like a child hearing that her parents were going to leave her with the babysitter while they went off to Disney World, Gemma-Kate’s plaintive cry startled the pugs from their slumber. “Let me come!”

On top of the cry Carlo said, “That’s right, Gemma-Kate’s starting in about this business made me forget. While you were in the shower Jerry Nolan … whatever his name is … called.”

“About what?”

“He asked if we wanted to go out to dinner with Gloria and him.”

“What did you say?”

“I said I thought you were going to Florida?”

“Oh, Carlo. No.”

“I was taken off guard.”