Chapter 3

Garrett set the envelope down.

"I signed a temporary guardianship."

Lorna went to the office doorway.

"The order doesn't say temporary anymore."

Anne asked Cole to sit at the kitchen table.

Del pulled out a chair beside his own.

Garrett stayed where Cole could see him.

The deputy entered through the mudroom.

His nameplate read HARRIS.

Anne gave him a quiet account of the wrist, the photographs, and Del's statement.

Lorna returned carrying a blue binder.

She held it toward the deputy.

"There."

He read the first page.

Then he asked Garrett for identification.

Lorna stood a little straighter.

"Now tell him."

The deputy didn't look up.

"This names you guardian."

"Exactly."

"It doesn't authorize hurting him."

Lorna's mouth tightened.

Garrett took a folded paper from his envelope.

"My lawyer filed to end it."

He handed over the filing receipt.

"The hearing's next month."

Anne read the date.

It was from before Del's call.

"You were already trying to get him back?"

"Yes."

Lorna shut the binder.

"He changes his mind when it suits him."

Garrett looked toward the kitchen table.

Cole was listening.

Garrett lowered his voice.

"Marnie died in February two years ago."

He swallowed before continuing.

"Cole was six."

"My job was across the river in Kentucky."

Lorna tapped the binder.

"And somebody had to take him."

"I asked for help while I got settled."

"You left."

"I left him with his aunt."

Garrett looked at the deputy.

"I didn't give up being his dad."

Anne asked what had happened afterward.

Garrett pulled the returned mail into separate stacks.

"At first, she said he needed time."

He put down a birthday envelope.

"Then she said seeing me upset him."

A Christmas card followed.

"When I came, she wouldn't let me in."

Lorna leaned against the office door.

"He wouldn't get out of the truck."

Garrett looked directly at her.

"You told me he was hiding upstairs."

Rudy rubbed both hands across his face.

Anne asked Garrett about court.

"I saved for a lawyer."

He touched the returned mail.

"I kept calling while I saved."

"Did you receive replies?"

"Some."

He left a smaller stack inside the envelope.

"I brought everything my lawyer asked me to keep."

Anne didn't open that stack yet.

She asked if they could use the office.

Lorna held the door.

"Why?"

"So Cole doesn't have to hear every word."

The deputy waited beside her.

After a moment, she moved.

Garrett turned to Cole.

"I'll be right through here."

Cole's fingers tightened around the chair seat.

"The door stays open," Garrett added.

Del remained at the kitchen table with him.

Inside the office, Anne photographed the guardianship order.

She called her supervisor.

The deputy took Garrett's lawyer's number.

Nobody promised a decision.

The courthouse was closed.

The order was still in force.

Lorna sat behind the farm desk.

She rested one hand on the blue binder.

"Take your pictures," she said.

"He's staying here."

Garrett looked through the open door.

Cole sat with both sneakers tucked under his chair.

Anne came back from her call.

"For now, she doesn't get to be alone with him."

Lorna pushed back from the desk.

"In my own house?"

"In the house where he was just hurt."

Anne asked Rudy to speak with the deputy.

He hesitated beside the kitchen doorway.

Lorna watched him.

"You know how this family gets."

Rudy didn't answer.

The deputy asked about the notebook date.

Rudy admitted he had heard the crying.

He admitted he hadn't gone into the mudroom.

"Why not?"

"Lorna said she had it handled."

At the table, Cole rubbed his untied shoelace between two fingers.

Del bent down and tied it.

No one asked Cole to explain that night again.

Anne returned to the desk.

She opened one returned envelope with Garrett's permission.

The birthday card inside was still sealed.

It showed a red tractor.

Cole could see it from his chair.

Garrett brought it to the doorway.

"I picked that because you liked Grandpa's."

Cole leaned forward.

"Did it have a horn?"

"The tractor?"

Cole nodded.

"The old one did."

A small crease appeared between Cole's eyebrows.

"I remember."

Lorna spoke from behind the desk.

"He didn't want the cards."

Garrett looked back at her.

"Then why were they unopened?"

"They upset him."

Rudy stood beside the office shelves.

He looked at the card.

Then at Cole.

He reached for a battered message pad beside the farm calendar.

Lorna said his name.

He kept his hand on the pad.

Then he told Anne,

"I took some of those calls myself."