Never In Another Life novel · Chapter 14 of 24
Chapter 14: The Family Dinner
The sheriff's office smelled of burnt coffee and wet boots.
The sheriff himself was a heavy, tired man with reading glasses pushed up into gray hair.
He watched the stair clip once, start to finish, with the sound on.
Then he took his glasses off and set them on the desk.
"That's a woman pushing a child," he said.
"Yes," I said.
"I won't pretend it isn't." He rubbed his eyes. "But it happened in Milwaukee County, three years ago, and the victim is a minor who is sitting in my waiting room eating a granola bar."
"So arrest her."
"I can send this to Milwaukee. I will, today. They'll want the original file, the account records, and a statement from the boy."
"You'll have all three."
"What I can't do," he said, "is touch the ventilator."
My stomach dropped.
"She walked in on camera at 3:41," I said.
"And walked out at 3:48. The cord went at 3:51. I know. Without a witness in that room, it's a coat and a plug." He sounded sick about it. "Your boy's story helps. A judge may not like it coming from a seven-year-old who was coached."
"Coached by her."
"Which a defense lawyer will say about you."
The deputy from the other night leaned in the doorway.
"Sheriff," he said. "The Winslade woman filed this morning."
He held out a sheet of paper.
The sheriff read it, and his mouth went flat.
"She's asking for a protective order against you, Ms. Alcott," he said. "She says you threatened her at the care home. She's also filed a complaint for fraud and for abducting a child by concealing his mother's death."
"Abducting him from the man who just drove him here?"
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