Then again.
The recording was remarkably clear because Sabrina had been standing beside me.
Those few sentences didn’t establish who had entered my bedroom.
But they established something important.
Sabrina had expected my absence, and she had described that absence as the point of a plan.
I copied the recording to a secure location on my phone using the device’s normal transfer function, preserved the original file, and contacted Avery.
“There’s more audio than I realized,” I told him.
“Don’t edit the original,” he said. “Keep the device and the files intact. We’ll discuss what can properly be shared with investigators.”
Then I asked him to help me arrange legal advice concerning the intrusion into my home and the unwanted shaving.
He agreed.
When Lucia returned, I let her help me into my coat.
She was holding the church program.
“Beatrice, you should see this.”
She opened it.
On the page listing the order of events, beneath the readings and musical selections, was an entry:
Mother-Son Dance — Beatrice and Michael Langford.
Lucia frowned.
“That was scheduled for tonight.”
I took the program.
Yes.
There it was.
I’d practiced the dance with Michael two weeks earlier.
He’d chosen a song his father used to play.
I hadn’t thought about it since arriving at the reception.
I had been too occupied trying to understand who had shaved my head.
Lucia turned the page.
“There’s a handwritten change on the planner’s copy.”
She showed me the note.
Remove if Mrs. Langford unable to attend.
I stared at it.
