"All of it, " Herschel nodded slowly. "Good enough, " he said. He went back to his porch. He picked up his book. Daniel went inside to heat up Margaret Patterson's lasagna.
He did not put extra cheese on it. Maya considered this a serious failure of leadership. He told her he was still learning the job. She told him that was not an acceptable excuse. He agreed that it probably wasn't.
And in the kitchen of 14 Sycamore Drive with a rented table, they'd finally gotten off the truck and two mismatched chairs and a lasagna from a neighbor who had chosen to do better. Daniel Carter and his daughter had their first dinner in their new home. and outside the city of Oakridge was deciding one person at a time what kind of place it was going to be. The article had 47, 000 shares by Tuesday morning. Daniel found out from Maya, who had no business knowing this, but had discovered it by asking Siri a question at breakfast that was technically about something else and had gone sideways in the way that 9-year-old research always did. She reported the number to him with the same tone she would have used to report a science fair result informational.
Vaguely proud, completely unaware of the weight of it. "Is that a lot? " she asked. "Go get your backpack? " he said. "Is it a lot? " "It's a lot, " he said. "Backpack? " she went.
He poured his second cup of coffee and stood at the kitchen counter and looked at his phone. 47, 000 shares, three local news segments, two requests from national outlets that Andrea had already fielded and declined on his behalf. A text from the mayor at 7: 02 that said simply, "My office today, 10: 00 a. m., no pressure, but also yes pressure. " He texted back, "I'll be there. " He drove Maya to school. She tested him on South American capitals the entire way there. because Priya had given her a list the day before and Maya had spent 40 minutes the previous night studying it with a focus that she did not. Daniel privately noted apply to her actual homework with any comparable intensity.
He got 12 out of 14 right. She told him the two he missed with the expression of someone who had expected better. Brazilia, she said, not Rio. This is a fundamental error. Daddy, I'll do better tomorrow. he said.
I know you will, she said, and got out of the truck with the breezy confidence of a person who has complete faith in the people she loves and has never seriously considered the alternative. He watched her walk inside. He sat in the drop off line for a moment after the car behind him honked. He pulled out. The mayor's name was Patricia Odum.
She was 58, had been in office for six years, was the first black woman to hold the position in Oakridge's history, and operated with the precision and economy of someone who had learned that every word in public life. Kat decided to only spend on words that were worth it. She was already standing when Daniel walked into her office at 10: 02, which meant she had something to say and had been ready to say it since at least 9: 30. Sit down, Daniel. She said he sat.
She sat across from him, not behind her desk. She had chosen the chairs by the window, which was her tell. The desk was for formal meetings and difficult conversations. The chairs meant she wanted this to be real. How are you?
She said, "I'm fine, " he said. "That's not what I asked, " she said. I asked, "How you are? " He looked at her. He had met Patricia Odum twice before this morning. once during his interview process. Once during the formal offer meeting and he had liked her both times for exactly this reason.
She meant what she said precisely. I'm managing. He said it was a hard first day for reasons I didn't anticipate but probably should have. She nodded. The article.
The article. Kesha Patterson did good work. She said her mother lives on your street. I know. He said, "Margaret brought me a lasagna Sunday afternoon. " Patricia Odum looked at him with an expression that was equal parts professional assessment and something much more human.
"A lasagna, " she said. "It was a very good lasagna, " he said. She almost smiled. "Daniel, I need to know how you want to handle this because right now this story is moving fast and it's going to arrive at a place one way or another. I'd rather we decided where that place was.
He had thought about this. He had thought about it through the staffing report and the Rodriguez conversation and Victoria's phone call and the dinner that May had declared a partial failure due to the cheese situation. He had thought about it clearly and arrived at something he was certain of. I don't want this to become about Victoria Hail, he said. Patricia waited.
She made a bad call, he said. a bad call rooted in something real and worth talking about. But if this story becomes about one woman on one street who called the police on the wrong person, then we've missed everything that actually matters. He leaned forward slightly. What I want, what I came to Oakridge to do is to build a department and a relationship with this community that makes it so the thing that happened Sunday morning becomes less possible. Not by punishing one person, by changing something structural, something real.
She was quiet for a moment. What does that look like? She said, community liaison program, he said. We already built one in Austin. It works.
Officers embedded in neighborhoods, not to police them, but to know them. Regular town halls, not the performative kind where officials show up and read talking points. The kind where people actually talk and we actually listen. He paused. And something else.