That evening Gregory called a short meeting in the clean painting area with Sky, Lucy, Terry, and Natalie. He told the girl about the complaint letter in age-appropriate terms and explained that a lawyer was responding to it. He made clear that no court had found the allegations true. Sky listened, then asked whether somebody had hired the man at the bus station to find her.
"That is one of the questions being investigated," Lucy answered. "We know there are connections. We don't know the whole story yet."
"You should've told me earlier," Sky said. Gregory nodded. "You're right. I thought keeping the worry away would protect you, but it left you guessing."
She looked around the room, taking in the unusual sight of grown men who were not defending themselves. "I can handle knowing," she said. "Not knowing is worse." The words settled over the garage, and even Terry, who had spent weeks advocating caution, found himself grateful she had said them aloud.
Before Sky left, she returned to the mural. She added a faint wash of color beneath the smaller rider's wheels, turning the road from gray to a muted gold. It was not a declaration that everything would work out. It was simply a decision to give the figure somewhere to move. Behind her, the garage lights flicked off one by one, leaving the unfinished wall bright beneath its own lamp, and outside the frontage road carried vehicles toward destinations nobody in the building could see.
The phone call came before sunrise on a Thursday. Jeff was still in bed when his screen lit up with a message from someone who worked at the records counter of a neighboring county. A private investigator had submitted another report about Sky's location, this time attaching photographs of the Iron Jaws garage and an argument that the approved respite arrangement should be reconsidered. A review meeting had been requested for the next afternoon. Jeff read the message twice, then called Gregory and Lucy before he had even found his shoes.
Within an hour the clean office at the garage was crowded. Terry had arrived with a folder of safety inspection receipts; Lucy sat behind her laptop; Jimmy stood in the doorway watching the road; and Gregory kept looking at the photograph of Luther on the wall. Sky was due for a supervised afternoon visit, but Natalie had already arranged to speak with her before the adults discussed anything that might affect her placement. Martha Clark joined by telephone and asked everyone to stop treating the message as an order. The agency had requested a review, she explained, not ordered Sky returned to the group home.
"We have time to act carefully," Martha said. "That doesn't mean we have time to waste. I want the current placement plan, the complaint letter, Luther's petition, Sky's advocate, and every factual response to the allegations in one file by noon." Terry looked at Gregory.