The babies lay next to each other on a quilt, their feet kicking. Theo could already rock from side to side, pausing at the farthest point for a long moment when he might have rolled over, but he didn’t, not yet. Grace waved her hands at the bright baby toys dangling from a soft padded arch over the quilt. She looked like she was casting a tiny spell, trying to shift the toys despite being unable to touch them.

“It’s getting late.” Elizabeth put her hands on the small of her back and stretched her shoulders. Between us the stack of books now sprouted tags, each marking a case that was remotely like Brady’s: blue for psychology of serial killers, yellow for forensics, red for biographical similarities—suburban, construction workers, married couples. “What should we do with these?

“Can I leave them here?” I didn’t want to ask her to lie to Wyatt, and I wouldn’t lie about them to Michael, but I also didn’t want either of them to know. And that made me feel a weight of shame and guilt I hated.

Elizabeth didn’t blink. “Of course. I’ll put them in the guest room.” She didn’t say that Wyatt wouldn’t see them there, because she wasn’t hiding them, but she wasn’t going to leave them lying around either. Her profile was inscrutable. She was here, doing something she might never have done, because she hadn’t wanted me to be alone. That was more than a spark; that was steel, to put a friend first.

“You never liked Lena.” I was testing the waters. It wasn’t Elizabeth’s way to say something unkind or unnecessary. But I’d be able to tell by the things she didn’t say. There was a habit she had of pausing, and I’d grown to see that was her way of mentally counting to ten. My father would like Elizabeth. He always recommended using the three questions: Does this have to be said? Does it have to be said now? Does it have to be said now by me?

And of course, my sisters and I would continue our barrage of accusations and defenses, screaming our inconsequential manifestos at each other, because nothing had to be said by us at any time, so we might as well say it all at the top of our lungs the minute it crossed our minds.