Anvil novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: Sign-Out Sheet

"Which uncle?" I said.

My own voice sounded far away.

"Mr. Lattimore, ma'am. He's on your pickup list. He said there was a family matter."

I dropped the receiver and let it swing on its cord.

I was out the back door with my apron still on before the day cook could ask me where I was going.

Tucker's bike sat across River Street, where it had sat all morning.

He saw my face and had the engine going before I reached him.

"Birdie," I said. "Rhett signed her out."

He did not say a word.

He pulled me on behind him, and we went down Linden Street faster than I had ever ridden in my life.

The front office at the school smelled like pencil shavings and floor wax.

The secretary stood up when she saw me, and her kind face fell apart.

"Ms. Hatcher, I'm so sorry. He's been on your list for three years. He brings the cookies at Christmas."

"Show me the sheet."

She turned the clipboard around.

R. Lattimore, 10:40, Uncle.

The name was written in the same easy loop he had once signed on Danny's funeral card.

"Did she go with him willingly?"

"She was holding his hand." The secretary pressed her fingers to her mouth. "She said, bye, my uncle's taking me to see a motorcycle."

Tucker put a hand flat on the counter.

"Which way did they turn out of the lot?"

"Toward the river road. In a gray pickup."

"Thank you."

He took my elbow, and we went out.

On the steps I stopped and bent over with my hands on my knees, and for a moment I could not get air.

"Lizzie."

"I put him on that list. After the funeral. He cried at the church, and I thought, he's all Danny has left."

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