“Thank you for letting him keep his own rig.”

“He earned his own trouble, Evelyn,” Nathaniel said.

“The law settled the rest.”

“He’s driving down to his cousin’s place in York on Friday morning,” Evelyn said.

“York has good hardware suppliers,” Nathaniel said.

He ate his meal in five quiet minutes while the diner heater hummed against the drafty glass doors.

When he finished his coffee, he took his leather billfold from his hip pocket and laid a crisp hundred-dollar bill flat on the counter.

Evelyn picked up the paper check and looked at the bill sitting on the Formica.