"Holt came in with counsel earlier this morning," Keene added. "He's cooperating to a degree. That doesn't make him innocent, and I don't want rumors spreading that anybody has been promised a free pass." Grim nodded.
He had not offered such a promise in the parking lot and was relieved that nobody else was pretending the deputy's last-minute change erased his history. Keene glanced at him. "There's one more thing. Whatever your past is, whatever reputation you carry, the testimony here will be about what happened to those families. Keep it that way."
Grim looked back toward the road. "That's the plan," he said. Keene had known him long enough to hear the seriousness beneath the brief answer. He extended his hand, not in celebration but in acknowledgment of a job handed from one kind of witness to another. Grim shook it. Then he stepped aside and placed a call to Marco.
The telephone was answered almost immediately. "They're okay," Marco said before Grim spoke. "Sarah's here. Kids are here. Nobody came to the house."
Grim closed his eyes and let the air leave his lungs. "Tell Sarah Mercer is in custody," he said. "Tell her Keene's people have the evidence and we're arranging a proper plan for what happens next. Tell her she can speak to somebody without Clay standing behind the person taking notes."
Grim heard Marco carry the message into another room. There was a pause, then Sarah's voice, low and unsteady, asking something he could not make out. Another pause followed. Finally a familiar child's voice came onto the line.
"Mr. Hayes?" Ethan said. Grim felt his chest tighten. "I'm here, Ethan."
"Is it really over?" the boy asked. The question deserved more than a quick answer. Grim thought of court hearings, witness interviews, temporary housing, the medical appointments Sarah would need, and the years of safety the children had lost that no arrest could return. He thought of the difference between an immediate danger and a future without fear.
"The part where Clay can keep you in that trailer is over," he said. "He's in custody. There are people whose job is to keep him from reaching your family. The rest will take work, but you won't be doing it alone."
Ethan was quiet. Grim could hear Rosie talking in the background about a rabbit and someone offering her toast. "Can Mom come back to normal?" Ethan asked.
Grim considered the word normal, wondering what shape it held for a boy who had spent years sleeping lightly enough to hear every angry footstep. "I think she can build a life where normal means something better than it used to," he answered. "It might take time. You should give her that time and give some to yourself too."
"Okay," Ethan said. Then he hesitated. "Mr. Hayes, can I ask something else?"
"Go ahead." "The other dinner you always buy. Millie said it's for somebody you miss." Grim stood on the sidewalk in full morning sun and felt the past reach him across twenty-three years. "That's right," he said quietly.