She took in his wet jacket, Danny's face, and the fact that everybody was still standing. Then she nodded once, the way a cook approves a tray coming out of the oven. "Sit down. I'm making eggs."
"It's after midnight," Danielle said from the kitchen doorway. "And?" Millie asked.
"Last I checked, people still get hungry after midnight." Walter was already breaking eggs into a bowl before she finished speaking. Heather and Ben climbed out from behind the jukebox. Frank helped Dolores back into their booth, while Bill returned to the counter and immediately ordered the coffee he had promised himself outside.
Jesse emerged from the hallway looking both younger and older than when he arrived. The threat had passed without the kind of damage he knew Clay was capable of, but he had no way of understanding how close it had come. He sat in a chair near the wall and covered his face. Nobody told him to pull himself together. Millie brought him water, then a plate with toast and eggs, and waited until he raised his head enough to see it.
"You need to eat," she said. "I don't think I can." "You don't have to finish it," Millie answered. "You just need to start." He picked up a fork after a while, holding it awkwardly, and managed a bite. The action seemed to convince some frightened part of him that the night had not ended with a locked door and Clay standing over him.
Grim sat at the counter. Danny took the stool beside him and rubbed both hands over his face. "He's going to regroup," Danny said.
"Clay will find other people, make other calls. Walking away from this lot won't turn him into a man who knows when to quit." Grim agreed. "The drive gives investigators a start, not a finish. We keep the witnesses safe and let them work."
"And Holt?" "He made a choice. We'll find out what it was when somebody official tells us."
Danny stirred his coffee even though he had put no sugar into it. "I didn't think you'd be able to stand out there and talk that long," he admitted. Grim looked down at his hands. "Neither did I," he said.
The eggs arrived in waves: two plates for Frank and Dolores, a heaped plate for Bill, smaller servings for the college students, a portion for Danielle that she insisted she had no time to eat, and one for Jesse with extra toast. Walter came out of the kitchen for the first time that night and leaned against the serving hatch, watching a room of strangers eat breakfast food after midnight. It was an odd congregation. Nobody tried to explain what held it together.
Near two in the morning, Frank and Dolores prepared to leave after arranging how their car would be returned from Laughlin. Dolores went to Grim and took his hand. "Tell that mother I hope she sleeps," she said.
"Tell her somebody here understands what it is to spend a night afraid for your children." Grim nodded. "I'll tell her." Frank shook his hand without speaking, then put an arm around his wife's shoulders and led her out into the clearing rain.