Murphy's Law 6: Will we ever stop burning through threads so quickly?

[Themrys]

The first one, I could understand...but the second one just comes out of left field. Yes, it's unlikely that an old friend just happened to come by. It's just as unlikely that an assassin who killed their parents would just happen by.

It's like you're exploiting the limits of probability to think of horrible things that could happen.

Seriously, what is there to suggest that the cleric isn't just a way to give some sort of happy ending to this part of the story and let Janine carry on the rest of the plot?

Well, isn't it a remarkable coincidence that an old friend of the children's family should just happen to be there and never have noticed them until now, that they are already being taken care of?

If you ever read "A Series of Unfortunate Events" you'll understand why I suspect that guy.