Chapter 12: February

I opened the folder.

The first thing in it was a photograph of my husband's back.

He was standing at a door with a key card in his hand, in the Linden Court corridor where I had stood five days before.

The picture was dated February 12.

"How long have you known?" I asked.

"Since February." June said it plainly. "The twelfth."

I sat down.

"I went in the hall closet to get Dad's gray jacket for him," she said.

"There was a key card in the inside pocket, with a sticker on the back. 4C, Linden Court."

"And you looked it up."

"There was a notice from the building in the mail, addressed to you. I saw the address on it."

She shrugged.

"I took the bus there after school the next Wednesday. I sat in the lobby with a book."

"June."

"He came in at six. He didn't see me. He took the stairs, and he had his own card."

I could not speak.

She turned the pages for me, one by one.

There were more photographs.

There were receipts from restaurants where I had never eaten.

There was a hotel charge from a March weekend when Calvin had said he was at a conference.

At the bottom was a purchase agreement for 2218 Fenwick Lane, with Paula's name printed on the buyer's line.

"I found that one in April," June said. "It was in Dad's briefcase, under the renewal forms."

"You photographed it."

"I put it back exactly the way it was."