Chapter 9: What Kurt Knew

Kurt's POV

Emmeline handed me the petition across the kitchen table and did not look at me.

I read it twice.

Lowell Bissell, petitioner, claimed to be the biological father of a child born to Emmeline Hale Gleason.

He asked for a paternity test, visitation, and a hearing in six days.

At the bottom, in the list of witnesses, was one name.

Tanya Birch.

"Kurt," Emmeline said. Her voice was barely there. "I need to tell you something. About Maisy. Before you hear it from anyone else."

"Not yet."

"Please."

"I'm asking you to hold it," I said, and I put my hand over hers. "Give me an hour. I'm going to the store."

"To fight him?"

"To look at him."

She stared at me, and I saw how scared she was.

I kissed the top of her head and went to find my boots.

Maisy sat in front of the television with the rabbit and a bowl of dry cereal.

"Daddy, are you going to work?"

"I'm going to buy milk, bug."

"The good kind?"

"The best kind."

I walked into Bissell Foods at ten past nine on a Saturday morning, when the whole town was in there.

Four registers, a line at each.

A produce stand, a deli counter, two stock boys unloading bread.

I walked straight down the center aisle in my Army boots, past the mothers and the old men with their carts, and every head turned.

Lowell stood at the end of the dairy case with a clipboard.

He saw me, and he put it down.

"Sergeant Gleason," he said pleasantly. "Good morning. Can I help you find something?"

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