It was just another day. Like any other day this week, or month, or even this year.

Claire was a very organized person. She followed a precise daily routine, a weekly routine, and a monthly routine. And she very rarely varied her routine.

It was a weekday, so according to her weekday routine, Claire would get off work at 4 p.m. She would walk a block to the Metro and wait precisely two minutes for her train to arrive.

Claire hated taking the Metro. The trains were so unreliable. While there was usually a train schedule for 4:08 p.m., sometimes Claire would have to wait for up to six minutes for her train. Claire longed for the days she’d seen in movies where a train conductor would hurry along the dallying passengers, shouting, “Keep it moving. I got a schedule to keep!” before starting the train up and leaving at the exact time listed on the train schedule.

It would take seventeen minutes for the train to get to her stop. When the doors would open, Claire would step out of the car exactly lined up with the stairs to the exit. It would take another three minutes to get to her car, and then another two to exit the parking lot at exactly 4:30 p.m.

Claire went in and left work early so she wouldn’t have to deal with rush hour. Traffic and accidents and too many vehicles on the road. Rush hour was just daring her to break her schedule, and she couldn’t do that.

Since it was a Tuesday, according to her weekly schedule, Claire would stop at the grocery store. She would check her list and notice that this week there were only two items she needed for the recipe she wanted to try tomorrow night.

And since it was the second Tuesday of the month, according to her monthly schedule, she would stop at the pharmacy in the grocery store to pick up her prescriptions.

Claire allotted an hour at the grocery store, but since she only had to get a few things, she would be out in only twenty minutes.

But things didn’t go according to plan.

Instead of leaving work exactly at 4 p.m., Josh from marketing caught her in the hall as she was headed to the elevator. He talked to her for a good two minutes before realizing that she was getting antsy and kept checking her watch.

This wouldn’t necessarily cause her to miss her train; she could arrive just as it did and get on, even if it wasn’t in the right car. And sometimes the train arrived late.

But today it was on schedule. Claire saw it leaving as she arrived on the platform. She glanced at the schedule and noted that the next train would arrive in fifteen minutes. It took seventeen minutes. And then the usual seventeen minute train ride was delayed at one of the stops because the car doors wouldn’t close. They had to offload the passengers onto the platform, where they had to wait another four minutes for the next train to arrive.

Claire didn’t get to her car until 4:55 p.m. And she didn’t leave the parking lot until 5:01 p.m. Even the extra twenty-five minutes showed an increase in vehicles leaving for the day. Her trains had been more crowded than usual. And there were far more people waiting to exit the lot.

It took ten minutes to get into the grocery store, where Claire picked up her prescription and her few groceries. She returned to her car and started driving the remainder of the way home. While it would only take fifteen minutes at four-thirty, there was more traffic an hour later. Claire caught every red light, causing her ride home to take twenty-two minutes. She pulled into her parking space and went to get the mail.

She picked up both her own mail and her next door neighbor’s mail. Mrs. Calloway was sixty-two years old, but had bad ankles. When she first moved into the area, three years earlier, Lucas Calloway, Mrs. Calloway’s nephew, had introduced her around the neighborhood. When he’d realized how routine-oriented Claire was, he asked if she’d look in on his mother everyone once in a while, knowing it would be done.

She was inside her house with her mail three minutes later.

She changed into more comfortable clothes and went over to Mrs. Calloway’s house. She usually brought the woman her mail at 6 p.m. and stayed with her for half an hour to make sure she was doing alright. Though initially she’d only done it at the request of Lucas Calloway, Mrs. Calloway had quickly charmed Claire. She was an unpredictable and quirky woman. Mrs. Calloway knew Claire liked to keep order, and respected the differences in their personalities, never forcing her unorthodox behavior on her neighbor.

Claire let herself into the house. She’d been given a key early on in their relationship so that Mrs. Calloway wouldn’t have to get up to answer the door. Mrs. Calloway’s two cats, Annie and Winston, twined around Claire’s legs as she came in. Though they had been standoffish at first, the cats had grown to accept Claire. But today they were unusually affectionate.

Claire announced herself, but didn’t hear a response from Mrs. Calloway. She made her way through the house, until she got to the living room, where the older woman was sitting in her chair, a glass of water on the table to her side along with a novel and the crossword of the day. She always said the crosswords kept her mind sharp.

Claire went to check on Mrs. Calloway, but as she rounded the chair, she didn’t need to check to know the woman was dead.