10.
THE TWENTY-EIGHTH OF OCTOBER, 2017, Millbrook, New York, late in the evening, a waxing moon cast dark shadows on the driveway. Brashner stood quietly on the front porch, the dinner party guests departing. The setting made it easy for him to overhear a conversation between Mary Sanchez and Erin Sesame, who were waiting in a line to hand over their claim check to the parking valet. They hadn’t noticed him standing nearby.
“Applying is so completely daunting,” Mary Sanchez said, the conversation about her daughter applying to a New York City private school. “It’s only October, and everyone I talk to already has the process well down the road.” She was a petite woman, no makeup, amber eyes, her dark hair pulled back above her ears, a broad white face with many freckles. He didn’t care fo
