Chapter 16: Closing Time

Mrs. Satterlee had said she was not finished, and my mother had looked out at the parking lot every few minutes since.

Nobody came for her that day, and nobody came the next.

On Tuesday, at ten minutes to closing, the one person who came was Brent MacIntyre, in a plain gray sweatshirt.

He did not wear the letterman jacket anymore.

The coach had taken his captain's patch the morning after the board meeting, and the whole school knew it.

My mother was counting the register.

I was stacking chairs.

The bell over the door rang, and she looked up and saw who it was.

"We're closed," she said.

"Ma'am, I came to talk to Keira."

"I know exactly who you came for."

She put the cash drawer down on the counter.

"You looked a deputy in the eye and told him my daughter sent you into a storm."

"Yes, ma'am. I did."

"Get out of my diner."

Brent did not argue.

He nodded, as if he had been expecting it, and walked backward through the door.

It closed on him, and he stood on the step under the neon sign with his hands hanging.

I put down the chair I was holding.

"Mom."

"No."

"He's standing in the parking lot in the dark."

"Good. Let him think about what he's got coming."

"He got up in front of the whole town and said it was Keeley."

"After a recording said it for him," my mother said, but the edge was gone from her voice.

She stood there with her hand flat on the register.

Then she went to the door and pulled it open.

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