"You could call him, you know," Danny said eventually. Grim turned. "Who?" "Your son. Or you could at least try to find out where he is."
Grim's expression closed instantly. Danny did not back away. "I'm not saying any of this gets fixed by a telephone call. I'm saying you sound like a man who just remembered a road he used to know existed."
"You don't know what happened," Grim said. "No," Danny admitted. "I know you eat two dinners in front of an empty seat every Friday, and that doesn't look like a man who's moved on. I also know Ethan walked in expecting nothing, and you gave him the best food in the room. Something changed. I don't need the whole story to see that."
Grim looked at his hands. They were scarred at the knuckles, the skin weathered and thick, the ring on his right hand dulled from decades of use. He remembered his son at sixteen arguing that he wanted to be known for something other than his father's jacket. Victor had heard rejection where the boy meant independence. He had answered by making the house a place his son could no longer tolerate, and the memory had aged without becoming easier.
"He told me he wasn't going to live like me," Grim said. "I told him a man who rejected his family wasn't worth keeping a place for." Danny waited. "I was angry," Grim continued.
"I thought if I made the sentence hard enough, he'd stop. He didn't. He took his bag and left. I haven't heard his voice in twenty-three years."
"You tried?" Danny asked. Grim watched the coffee's surface tremble slightly as another truck passed outside.
"Not at first. Then when I wanted to, I told myself he'd hate the call. Then the years got big enough that I didn't know how to reach through them." He set down the cup. "I don't know if he wants to be found."
Danny considered the answer. "Maybe that's his choice to make once you've tried honestly," he said. "You don't have to ask him to forgive anything. You can tell him you were wrong and let him decide what he wants to do with it."
Grim stared at the empty booth. "You make it sound simple," he muttered. "No," Danny said. "I make it sound possible. Different thing."
At eight fifteen, two agents arrived in an unmarked car. They showed credentials, spoke privately to Millie, and asked to meet Jesse in the back office where the diner kept invoices and payroll records. Grim handed over the USB drive in the little paper envelope he had used to protect it from the wet. One agent recorded the time and who had handled the device, then put it into an evidence container. The other asked Jesse whether he had other copies and whether the documents were altered.