His Quiet Alibi

Gil Renn is the most reliable man on the quietest street in town. He keeps the garden, cooks on Tuesdays, and is home by six. He also has an alibi for every night that matters, signed by a ferryman who died six years ago. Marta finds the rota while clearing the dead man's house, and starts counting backwards through her marriage. One signature covers the night a neighbor's daughter vanished. Another covers the night a stranger drowned at the dock. The ferry manifests confirm Gil was aboard, which is impossible. Marta doesn't scream and she doesn't leave. She photographs, interviews, follows her gentle husband for one evening, and finds a program that has been moving people through small ports for twenty years—and a handler who would prefer she move too. She stays home and waits with the kettle on.