“Call him back and ask him to read the date at the top.”

A pickup crossed the overpass with a ladder rattling in the bed.

I turned the phone over once and set it down again.

“I’ve already been a nuisance to that man twice this morning.”

Rachel blew on her coffee and let the quiet sit there.

She has a way of waiting that makes the silence belong to her.

So I called him back.

Officer Hale answered with his name and the township, a radio murmuring somewhere behind him.