The state seal still had the scratch from Interstate 70.
His granddaughter Lily, eleven, found him examining it at the kitchen table.
“You should get it fixed.”
“It’s metal.”
“Polish it.”
“The scratch is deep.”
“Then get a new one.”
Elias closed the leather fold.
“No.”
“Why?”
He considered telling her the entire story.
She already knew the simplified family version: Grandpa got stopped by bad police officers and helped an investigation.
“The scratch reminds me what this is worth.”
Lily frowned.
“A badge?”
“Yes.”
“What’s it worth?”
“Less than people think.”
She looked confused.
Elias opened the case again.
“When I carried it for work, it gave me authority to do certain things because the law and my agency allowed it.”
“Like arrest bad guys?”
“Sometimes.”
“Cool.”
“Usually paperwork.”
“Less cool.”
He smiled.
“But the badge never made me right.”
Lily looked at the scratched seal.
“Then why have one?”
“So people know who has authority.”
“That sounds important.”
“It is.”
Elias nodded.
“That’s why using it honestly matters.”
He put the credential away.
The one thousand dollars was eventually returned through the criminal restitution process.
By then Harold McNally had sold the lathe to someone else.
Elias called him after the case ended.
“Still looking?” Harold asked.
“Always.”
“I’ve got a Logan eleven-inch coming available.”
“How much?”
“Twelve hundred.”
Elias groaned.
“Crime is inflationary.”
Harold laughed.
Two months later Elias drove back onto Interstate 70 with twelve hundred dollars in an envelope.
Mara learned about it and called him before he left.
“You are not carrying cash down that highway again.”
“I am sixty-nine years old.”
“That isn't a legal argument.”
“The seller doesn't use electronic payments.”
“Take a cashier’s check.”
“He wants cash.”
“Take someone with you.”
Elias looked toward the passenger seat.
Lily was sitting there with headphones and three snacks she had packed for a two-hour trip.
“I have backup.”
Mara sighed.
“Your granddaughter does not count as backup.”
Lily heard her through the speaker.
“I absolutely count.”