Carol looked at the handle and then at the child. "Things break in my house too," she said. "When they do, I get annoyed at the thing, not at whoever is standing nearest it."
Ethan considered that with an expression that made her ache. "Even if the person was supposed to fix it?" he asked. "Even then," Carol said. "Being responsible for a task doesn't mean somebody gets to frighten you while you do it."
In Kingman, the investigation widened in ways Grim could follow only indirectly. Agents collected records from Clay's transport office, compared banking information against the files Jesse had copied, and interviewed employees who had once been certain that keeping quiet would protect them. The more credible the evidence became, the harder it was for Clay's former associates to pretend he could shield them from consequences. Some retained lawyers. Some spoke voluntarily. Others denied everything until investigators produced records they had not expected anyone to find.
Gary Holt's early decision to seek counsel did not spare him the investigation. He was questioned about the improper stops, the calls made to Clay, and payments that did not match his ordinary income. He could no longer describe himself as an uninvolved deputy who happened to be nearby when trouble occurred. His badge had allowed Clay's people to intimidate families and redirect legitimate complaints. The fact that he had driven away from the diner parking lot mattered, but it did not erase the preceding years.
Jesse struggled through his interviews, sometimes correcting details he had given in haste on the first night. He had kept a notebook with dates and descriptions that helped investigators distinguish what he witnessed from what he heard secondhand. He also began working with an attorney who explained that cooperation was not a declaration of innocence. When he admitted to having delivered envelopes and driven vehicles he suspected were part of criminal activity, the attorney told him to keep telling the truth even when the answers made him look bad.
"I thought doing the right thing would feel better," Jesse confessed to Grim in a brief telephone call. Grim sat at the diner counter, turning his coffee cup once before answering. "Sometimes it takes a while for right choices to catch up with the damage done by the wrong ones," he said. "You can't buy your way clear with one drive and a confession. But you can stop adding lies to the pile. That's a beginning."
Jesse fell quiet. "Do you think Natalie's family will ever forgive me?" he asked. "I don't know," Grim replied.
"They don't owe you forgiveness, Jesse. What they are owed is every truthful thing you can tell the investigators. Give them that and let the rest belong to them." The young man thanked him without sounding comforted. Grim considered that an honest outcome.