The Warden and the Bath

The bathroom tile was cold under his bare feet because he had left his shoes in the bedroom.

He ran the water and tested it with his wrist, not his elbow. His mother had always used her wrist. Warm but not hot, because a drugged body regulates temperature poorly and crashing blood pressure would be dangerous. Gap year as a nursing assistant. His brain was producing every piece of caretaking data he’d ever accumulated in a precise cascade, and the data was not an alibi.

Alibis were for men who didn’t know what they were doing. The data was how you did it right.