“IT HAPPENED just like you said,” Junie said, looking up at us with an anguished expression I read as fear and pain.

  “Michael died?” I asked her. “He is, in fact, dead?”

  “Can I start at the beginning?” Junie asked Conklin.

  “Sure,” Rich told her. “Take your time.”

  “See, I didn’t know who he was at first,” Junie said. “When Michael called to make the date, he gave me a fake name. So when I opened the door and there he was - oh, my God. The boy in the bubble. He’d come to see me!”

  “What happened next?” I asked.

  “He was really nervous,” Junie said. “Shifting from one foot to the other. Looking at the window like someone could be watching him. I offered him a drink, but he said no, he didn’t want to forget anything. He said that he was a virgin.”

  Junie bowed her head and tears spilled out of her eyes, dropped to the table. Conklin passed her the box of tissues, and we looked at each other in shock as we waited her out.

  “A lot of boys are virgins when they come to me,” she said at last. “Sometimes they like to pretend that we’re having a date, and I make sure it’s the best date they ever had.”

  “I’m sure,” Conklin murmured. “So is that what happened with Michael? He pretende............