“The diner lot is right by the road,” Nathaniel said.

“The deputy will move you along from there before nightfall.”

Nathaniel carried the two remaining cots out to his truck bed while Deputy Miller finished writing his report beside the cruiser.

By two in the afternoon, the gray winter sky had turned to a steady freezing sleet that rattled against the windshield of Nathaniel’s pickup in the diner’s side lot.

Nathaniel lifted the last cardboard box of children’s books out of the back seat of the sedan and put it in his truck cab to keep the paper dry.