Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. Vol. 33, No. 1, January, 1988

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“Dad, did Mr. Dexter kill Mom?”

Rob Kettleman pulled Tommy’s Captain Defendo pajamas out of the drawer and stood up, wondering how to deal with this. Tommy was old enough to be curious but too young to understand. Just be honest, he reminded himself.

“No. Mr. Dexter didn’t kill Mom.” He tossed the pajamas to Tommy. “Time to get into these, sport. What gave you that idea about Mr. Dexter, anyway?”

Tommy began to undress. “I was telling Mr. Dexter about how we won’t see Mom till we go to heaven. And he said he knew Mom died, and I told him everybody back in Tampa said she was killed. And he said he was sorry. If he didn’t kill Mom, why did he say he was sorry?”

Because, Rob thought, it’s what people say when they can’t think of anything else. A beautiful young mother, running errands in broad daylight, walks into the wrong place in downtown Tampa when people she doesn’t even know start shooting at one another. Drug wars. The mob. Nobody will ever be certain. Friends say they’re sorry. What else can they say? How do you explain that to a five-year-old?

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