She could ask Calder whether Mara wished to receive personal correspondence without requesting a private address.

Leah folded the letter and placed it back in her bag.

She asked whether I thought her mother had loved Mara.

I said I knew Iris had described being frightened for her, but I could not see inside their relationship.

Leah admitted she sometimes treated her mother’s fear as proof of affection because she wanted to believe the best.

Other times she treated the same fear as proof of wrongdoing.

Neither interpretation helped her understand what had actually happened.

We sat on a park bench while children kicked a soccer ball across the grass.

One boy shouted that he had scored, although the ball had gone several feet wide.

The others laughed and began another game.

Leah said she had spent much of her childhood feeling responsible for preventing the next disaster.

She wanted to learn how to live without searching every face for a warning.

I told her that Sophie had recently asked whether my new house was safe.

Leah looked toward the children and said the safest answer was often an honest one with room for uncertainty.

Later, Calder told her that Mara had agreed to receive the letter through the investigator.

Leah mailed it without asking for a reply.

She said sending it was enough for the moment.

ADDITIONAL CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: THE JOURNALIST’S DILEMMA

Frances called me after a national podcast offered to buy the rights to her investigation.

The producers wanted a dramatic opening built around my security video and a re-created scene of Iris forcing her way into my house.

Frances told them Iris had never entered my home and that the police had not forced entry either.

They proposed changing the scene because it would be easier for listeners to follow.

Frances declined the offer.

She said the truth was complicated enough without inventing a more violent version.

I asked whether she regretted losing the money.

She admitted that freelance journalism was financially uncertain and that the offer would have paid several months of bills.

She regretted the lost income but not the decision.

We met later at the newspaper office to review which photographs I had authorized her to publish.

She had used only the exterior shot I supplied and had blurred house numbers from neighboring properties.

She also explained why she would not publish Mara’s diary entries without permission.

Even if the pages interested readers, the missing woman had a right to describe her own life.