There was no catharsis with the truth, only a realization that more good people were now painfully aware of another unseen threat to their lives and children. It was an act I reviled. I reached for my water, but Suma moved first, ever the healer, and guided the straw to my mouth. She also spoke first among the quietly stunned faces of her family. Risa and Wally sat mute, knowing that there was so much more to tell. “Is it the knife?” Suma ventured. Her tone was pensive. “It makes some sense in that you mentioned it as an heirloom, but that doesn’t explain all three of you. If it isn’t a thing, a weapon, whatever, then it must be you. Or some aspect of you.” Panit asked a halting question, his eyes flicked from me to Risa to Wally, curious. “Boon, do you remember when we were robbed?” His tone was quiet, echoing the fear of a father and husband who had seen a very personal act of war come to his doorstep. Two addicts with knives had slashed at him one night, barking their anger even after he had dropped the cash deposit on the ground.
