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place in your mind the same way that the unceasing flow of a river creates a canyon.
    “You and my grandfather only spoke for a minute before … before everything happened, but I can’t make any sense of it. How did you know his old army nickname was Cake? Even I didn’t know that until last year, and that was from reading his old letters from the war when I was helping to move his things into the home.”
    I shrugged. “I told you I was Abe Griffin.”
    “I’m serious. Also, he said a word I don’t know. Baitbag? And then you said it was like Warsaw, and he agreed. What was that about? Did you know that my grandfather was wounded in Poland in the war?” She looked at me for a long second, her eyes going hard. “Did you set this up? He seemed to recognize you as soon as you walked in. Have you been visiting him? To convince him that you were his old army buddy? Is that why he sent me to get you?”
    I nearly choked on my burger. “Are you asking me if I secretly set up this whole meeting so that I could shoot my own accomplices and then wait around to get questioned by the police afterwards? After I arranged to make sure you knew where I lived? I don’t know what you do for a living, Anne, but I’m going to bet that your day job isn’t police detective.”
    She put up her hands. “I know, I know. I’m sorry. Nothing makes any sense, and I don’t know what to think. Just, please, help me understand what’s happening.”
    It seems like my entire life has, in one way or another, revolved around keeping this secret. Those of us who survived Warsaw never told Command the whole story. Of everyone in the world, at least they would have believed it. But my men were willing to lie for me, so that I wouldn’t spend the rest of my life in a basement lab somewhere as a permanent specimen.
    I started dying my hair when Maggie turned fifty in order to lie to our friends. There wasn’t much I could do for my face, but you’d be surprised how far a little gray will get you. I had to stop going to veteran’s functions a few years later, when the gray wasn’t enough.
    In my own town, I had to avoid even my closest friends, becoming more isolated by the year. Eventually that became less of a problem as they passed away from age or accident or disease.
    I let my youth force me into hiding, shrinking my world down to just Maggie and me, and that was just fine. Until she died. Now, sitting across from Patrick’s granddaughter, I found that I no longer cared. I realized that I was carrying the shield long after the battle was lost.
    “The answer is that I really am Abe Griffin. Your grandfather knew me because we served together in the war.”
    “Oh my God.” She looked at me closely to see if I was kidding. “You don’t really believe that, do you?”
    “If I’m crazy, then so are you. Did you see me shoot your grandfather’s killer?”
    “Yes.”
    “Where did I hit him? In the chest?” Remembering brought pain to her eyes, but she nodded. “I hit that guy center mass with a .45 caliber slug. Right in the heart. He didn’t even fall down, much less die. Maybe you don’t know much about guns or hearts, but that’s not normal.”
    “Maybe he was wearing a bulletproof vest or something.”
    “Okay, let me ask you another one. You asked me about a smell before I ran out to the parking lot. You said it was a horrible smell. Have you smelled it before?”
    “Off and on for the last couple of days.”
    “Usually when your grandfather was having one of his episodes, right? And did you complain to the people who run the home?”
    “Of course I did, it was awful.”
    “And they couldn’t smell it, could they?”
    “They said they couldn’t, but I think they were lying so they wouldn’t get into trouble, or have to clean it up. How did you know?”
    “Here’s another one. I heard you scream from the parking lot
before
I heard the glass breaking on the patio. You knew they were out there before they broke in,