Renzo's Objection

Renzo came on the Saturday at eleven, which was an hour later than he had said and about nine minutes after I had stopped pretending I was not watching the clock.

He had his folder. He had also, I noticed, had his hair cut badly, and there was a wedding ring on his right hand that had not been there in December, and I did not ask about either of those things, because we are not friends. We are two people who are extremely careful with the same dead woman.

Mateo told him about the missing chapter before he had his coat off. He did it plainly and in the right order — the schedule, the count, the white space at page one hundred and eighty-six, the Wednesday with nothing behind it — and he did not soften it and he did not manage it, and it took him about…