_Author’s POV_
Kasper made the call from the east annex.
He went there specifically, not to the study the corridor, not anywhere that the household’s ambient awareness would catch whatever he was saying on the call and knowing of the conversation.
The east annex was where he went when he needed the walls to be his own business, and this conversation qualified on every level.
He stood at the window with his phone and looked at the garden coming into its late morning light and dialed a number he had not dialed in fourteen months.
He had the number memorized. He had never deleted it. The not-calling had been a choice made every time he looked at the contact, and the choice had always been straightforward until now.
It rang four times before the call was connected and the d
