Chapter 2
One Week Earlier
My world collapsed when the phone rang at ten P.M. on the last Monday in July, during the worst summer heat wave to blanket the small upstate New York area of Milestone in two years.
Philip and I had gone to the farmer’s market that morning at eight, after our morning constitutional around the grounds at the Old Air Force Base. We’d both adopted a new daily ritual. Get up early and run three miles.
That same day, we’d planned to bake an after-dinner strawberry rhubarb pie.
Our plans changed.
We walked our dog, Darth, to the doggie park at Trinity Park downtown to let him play with other dogs his size for an hour. As we were leaving, Darth’s new four-legged friends whining for him to stay behind, Philip and I ran into Father O’ Brian talking to his parishion
