“She needed care and time; enough space not to feel threatened, but not so much that she could retreat.”

“a truth does not take too long to tell, only a fiction requires so much thought”

“It wouldn't do him any good to cry, no matter how much he wanted to. He had to think. He had to try to gather as much information as he could, and lay it all out, and reason through it, and come up with some ideas of what to do and how to help.”

“Perps didn't always get their just deserts in this life. That was one of the reasons she kept believing in God, the hope that he would kick ass in the afterlife.”

“Sure, why not?" she said. "You know, you read about a crime in the paper and you think how terrible for the victims, and then you turn the page and move on.”

“She had the kind of looks that had probably been quite pretty in high school, but were now worn down by years of smoking cigarettes, raising children, and the disappointment of being married to an asshole.”

“We do the best we can," she said softly, looking inward. "And punish ourselves for it. I've tried to make my choices with the idea that I've made those choices for the greatest good. Sometimes someone suffers in the process, but I made the decision for the right reason. That should count for something, shouldn't it?”