I just answered the door and listened.”

Chapter 19 — The Verdict

Six months later the sun came through the high arched windows of the county courthouse, and Cordell sat in the front row of the gallery in his dress uniform, beside Pilar and the twins.

Livia looked like a different child than the one from the station floor — color in her cheeks, restless in her seat the way a healthy seven-year-old ought to be.

Junia sat still in a new navy dress with her hand resting easily in her mother’s, watching everything, the way she watched everything.

Six months of safety had begun, slowly, to do its work on both of them — Cordell could see it.