“This was hand-delivered to my house at seven o’clock,” he said.

He tapped the top right corner, where a dark red stamp lay flat on the page.

“My mother delivered this?” I asked.

“Patricia Whitmore filed an official ethics complaint with the school board,” Superintendent Miller said.

“She claims you suffer from acute emotional instability, that you’re neglecting Emma, and that you made up a police report to cover an accident in her home.”

He adjusted his thin wire-rimmed reading glasses and looked at me across the quiet administration office.