Alice told the psychiatrist about her blind sister. “She has built a wall of eyes around her, the good eyes of the rest of us, the eyes of the people who hate her and watch her and wait for her to die. That’s what she says, that the eyes are watching and waiting.” Soon the waiting would be over.

Jack Hollis had finally steeled himself for what had to be done: When a man is threatening your daughter and grandson, when reason can’t stop it, when restraining orders don’t work and the police can’t help, then a father’s choices are limited. David Rakubian was vicious, abusive, powerful, deadly — and Angela’s husband. Everyone Hollis knew, the members of his family, his friends, all wanted to help save Angela. But this was something Jack had to do himself: Failure would be costly; success just as risky. Now he waited across the road from Rakubian’s house, hoping he’d get home quickly, before he lost his nerve. But Rakubian never got there, and the distraught father came up with another plan, something foolproof. Promising Rakubian a meeting with Angela so they could discuss their problems, he arranged for them to be somewhere isolated, somewhere a body could be easily disposed of, somewhere that would offer a perfect alibi. But Rakubian never got there, either. And when Hollis finally tracks him down, he discovers that someone may have done his job for him. Now he doesn’t know who to protect: There are too many people who’d wanted to help Angela, too many suspects (including himself); so many people and no one saying a word.

He looked at her, at her fine grave face and too elegant gestures. He thought tiredly that this one was nearly gone, that she would go on drinking too much gin and sleeping in too many beds, that she would remember nothing between the beds and the bottles. The worst of it was that he liked her. She had a face he would remember. And for a long time he would think of her and wonder just what had become of her, whether she was alive or dead...