He knew it sounded lame. He wasn’t in charge of taking care of the kids – that was Frannie’s job – so he wasn’t certain what time school got out. Somewhere in the back of his mind he recalled that they had one early dismissal day every week. It must be Thursday.

‘About an hour.’

An hour without even a call? Frannie liked to say that if a punctual person was a lonely one, then she was one of the loneliest people on earth. ‘Have you heard from Erin? I mean Mrs Cochran? She’s on the call list.’ This was Rebecca’s grandmother, who often picked up the kids at school when Frannie had other errands.

‘That was my first call, Mr Hardy, to Erin. But I just got an answering machine. I thought I’d wait a few more minutes before calling you at work – maybe somebody got caught in traffic.’ She hesitated. ‘Your son’s pretty upset. He wants to talk to you.’

Hardy heard his third grader, Vincent, trying to be brave, but his voice was cracking, frayed. He responded with a hearty confidence. ‘It’s OK, bud, I’ll be down to pick you up in no time. Tell Rebecca it’s all right, too. Everything’s fine.’

‘But where’s Mom?’

‘I don’t know, Vin, but don’t worry. I’m sure it’s just a communication mix-up. That or she’s running late from something.’ He was selling himself as well as his son. Maybe Frannie had arranged for another parent to pick up the kids and that person had forgotten. ‘She’ll probably show up before I get there.’

Although he didn’t really believe that. Frannie would have told the children if someone else other than Erin were going to pick them up. They had strict rules about not going home with anybody other than Mom, Dad or Grandma unless the arrangements had been approved in advance. ‘You be a big guy,’ he said. ‘Everything’s OK, I promise.’

Hardy made a quick call back to his reception desk and questioned Phyllis – was she sure Frannie hadn’t left a message earlier? But Phyllis was an efficiency machine. If his wife had called, she told him icily, she would have told Hardy. As she always did.