Notes on “Painless”:

• I've tried very hard to get Nicole's voice right. I hope I've succeeded. I wanted to try something different. The story started galloping in my head as I was proofreading "Show and Tell."

• This "interlude" is unique in that I wrote and edited it entirely on my phone. It was such a claustrophobic piece that it seemed to fit.

• Congratulations if you catch the very, very, very obscure Easter egg.

• "that dreadful colleague of Robert Goren's"—Nora Loughran (see "Disclosure").