Chapter 2
Cole kept looking at the door.
Lorna moved first.
"That's not what I told him."
Del stayed in the doorway.
Boots scraped across the mudroom step.
Then Garrett Boone appeared behind him.
He wore a work jacket with a frayed collar.
A woman carrying a plain black bag followed.
Garrett saw Cole's hand around his own wrist.
He stopped before reaching for him.
"Hey, buddy."
Cole pressed his back against the frame.
Garrett lowered himself onto one knee.
"It's Dad."
"I know."
The words came out almost without sound.
The woman showed Lorna her identification.
"I'm Anne Mercer, with the local DCS office."
Lorna pulled her vest straight.
"This is a family disagreement."
"I need to check on Cole."
"He gets worked up about his mother."
Garrett's knee stayed on the floor.
He held one hand open beside his leg.
Cole looked at it, then at Lorna.
She spoke over him.
"His father can't just take him."
"Nobody's making that decision in this doorway," Anne said.
Lorna nodded once, as though Anne had agreed.
"Then tell him to leave."
Anne stepped inside instead.
She asked Cole if anything hurt.
He showed her his wrist without answering.
A red band crossed the skin.
Del pointed toward the floor.
"She pulled his mother's chain off."
Garrett picked up the locket by its broken chain.
He kept it open in his palm.
Cole took one step toward him.
"Is it broke?"
"The chain is."
Garrett held it where Cole could see.
"We'll keep every piece."
Lorna folded her arms.
"He shouldn't have been wearing it."
Anne asked permission to look at Cole's forearm.
He lifted the torn cuff.
She looked without touching the scars.
"Do those hurt now?"
Cole shook his head.
"His uncle wants you to think something," Lorna said.
Del took a worn spiral notebook from his coat.
Its cardboard cover had softened at the corners.
"I want you to read the dates."
Anne accepted it.
Lorna gave a short laugh.
"He writes down everything I do wrong."
Del kept his eyes on Anne.
"Photographs are in my trailer."
"Taken when?"
"First ones were in September."
Lorna looked at Garrett.
"He's mad because I cut his hours."
Anne asked Del whether he had reported his concerns.
"Twice."
She checked the intake numbers inside his notebook.
"We have those reports," she said.
"They don't settle what happened."
"No," Del said.
"They don't."
Garrett looked up at him.
"Five months?"
Del took off his cap.
"I saw marks before I saw her do it."
His thumb worked along the cap's bent bill.
"I should've pushed harder."
Anne asked him to bring the photographs.
Lorna stepped toward the doorway.
"Those are pictures of my ward."
Anne met her there.
"Let him get them."
Del went across the snow to the trailer.
Anne stayed beside Cole.
Garrett remained on the floor until his son spoke.
"You can get up."
Garrett stood slowly.
He slipped the locket into his shirt pocket.
"I'll hold this unless you want it."
Cole touched the pocket once.
Then he left it there.
Del returned with a large envelope.
Anne spread several photographs across the clear end of the table.
In one, Cole wore a short-sleeved shirt.
Three round marks showed on his arm.
Another showed a dark bruise above his wrist.
Del matched each picture to a notebook entry.
He described what he had seen.
He separated that from what Cole had said.
On one date, he had heard crying.
On another, he had seen Lorna drag Cole through the kitchen.
Rudy stared at that entry.
Anne noticed.
"Were you here that evening?"
Lorna answered for him.
"He works long hours."
Anne turned back to Rudy.
"Were you here?"
"Yes."
Garrett's hand closed around the edge of the table.
Lorna looked at the pictures.
"I didn't know it was that bad."
Anne lifted her eyes.
"Which part?"
Lorna reached for her phone instead.
"I'm calling the sheriff."
"Dispatch already knows I'm here," Anne said.
"I requested a deputy before we came."
Garrett unzipped his jacket.
He pulled out a thick mailing envelope.
"I brought these, too."
Returned envelopes filled half of it.
His son's name appeared on each one.
Cole leaned close enough to see.
"Those were mine?"
Before Garrett could answer, tires crunched in the drive.
A sheriff's cruiser stopped behind the truck.
Lorna pointed at Garrett.
"He signed that boy over to me."