“You’ve got no right touching things on my desk,” he said, his low voice sinking to a gravelly whisper.

“You bought the pennies out of your own personal savings,” I said.

“You stood in this office last week and told me your boy needed medical insurance,” Dale said.

He yanked his heavy leather belt buckle with both thumbs, cinching it tight at his waistband.

“My mother worked sixty-hour weeks at the wire plant, and she never asked this town for a dime.”

“Noah has severe asthma, Dale.