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battery, also with a result.
    Good jobs.
    Detectives Cutter and Sheldon were seeking an armed carjacker. On the streets and in a couple of nightclubs, people had been getting in fights – the usual – but if anyone had pulled or used a knife or a gun lately, it had not been reported to MBPD.
    Maybe not love in the air, but peace of a kind.
    And a lot of paperwork to complete.
    The usual.
    Grace called from Zurich at five after one.
    â€˜I’m about to have an early dinner with a few of the delegates,’ she told Sam. ‘I don’t know where we’re going, but they seem a nice bunch.’
    She was hungry for details about Joshua, wanted to check on the rest of the family, to know how Sam’s rehearsal had gone.
    â€˜Your day first,’ he said.
    â€˜It’s been good – interesting session on parenting, tougher afternoon dealing with serious depression in adolescents.’
    â€˜Certainly your territory,’ Sam said.
    â€˜I did contribute,’ Grace told him.
    â€˜How did that feel?’
    â€˜Good,’ she said. ‘Stimulating, I guess.’
    â€˜I’m feeling a little sore,’ he told her. ‘All we really did last night was block the moves for the fight, and even that felt like a damned workout. Jack Holden might weigh less than me, but he’s no lightweight, I can tell you.’
    â€˜Tell him I said to be gentle with you,’ Grace told him.
    And then they both said how much they missed each other.
    Both knowing it was true.
    Both liking that.
    â€˜Cataracts,’ David told her, ‘are nothing in the scheme of things.’
    â€˜Except they make you go blind,’ Mildred said.
    â€˜If left untreated, yes, they do.’
    She had been very quiet on the short drive home, had let David take her arm getting in and out of the car because her eyes were still blurry, had then sat thinking dark thoughts about how much worse things might become if she did not start doing as she was told.
    Mildred had never appreciated being
told
.
    David had waited till they were safely back home in the comfortable old living room that had been little altered since his late wife Judy’s days. Not that David hadn’t encouraged Mildred to make changes if she wanted to, but though she had bought some cushions and had expressed a great liking for a painting of South Beach – which David had promptly gone out to buy for her – the room was still much as it had been.
    â€˜I’m not minimizing anything,’ he said now. ‘But I can’t help feeling relieved.’
    â€˜You thought it might be worse.’ She was assailed by guilt. ‘You’ve been afraid for me. I’m so sorry. I’ve been selfish.’
    â€˜You’ve been scared,’ David said. ‘It’s allowed. And I know you’re still scared because of what comes next, but it’s going to be fine. In fact, once it’s done, it’ll be better than fine.’
    â€˜I know that’s true, and I know I’m generally regarded as having good common sense. But now I have to go see an ophthalmic surgeon, and you’ll have to give me two tranquilizers that day’ – her voice shook a little – ‘and then there’ll be the surgery . . .’
    â€˜Which you will know nothing about,’ David said gently.
    â€˜But Doctor Sutter said that most people have cataracts removed under local anesthesia.’
    â€˜He also said that plenty of other people opt for sedation or general anesthesia. And in your case, I can’t think of a single reason why you should have to put yourself through any ordeal that isn’t absolutely necessary.’
    Mildred looked at him through the lingering blur of the drops. ‘I’m still a first-class coward,’ she said.
    â€˜No one’s perfect,’ David said. ‘Not even me.’
    The waiting room was almost full.
    No more than usual in a busy, multiphysician Miami