Next Time Away novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Three Hundred Dollars

I did not go inside.

I strapped Greta's seat into the green truck, which Jonas had left running.

Then I drove it to the county sheriff's office myself.

The doctor had let me drive again on Monday.

I gripped the wheel at ten and two the whole way and did not take it over thirty.

The station had a glass door and a front desk with a bell.

A plastic Christmas tree stood by the desk, and nobody had taken it down.

I carried Greta's seat to the counter and set it on the floor.

"I'm here for Jonas Reiten," I said. "The man you arrested in my driveway."

The deputy at the desk looked at the baby, then at me.

"Are you family?"

"I'm the passenger. He drove me because I asked him to. That's my statement. Write it down."

"Ma'am, it doesn't change the charge."

"Write it down anyway."

He wrote it down.

It took two hours.

I sat on a bench under a corkboard of missing-pet flyers and fed Greta under my coat.

People came in to pay tickets, and they looked at me and looked away.

At some point my phone began to buzz and would not stop.

I took it out with one hand.

Soren's mother had posted the video.

Dagny had filmed it well.

It showed the cruiser, the cuffs and Jonas bent over the hood.

It showed me in the truck door with my baby against my shoulder and my mouth open.

The caption read: Tonight the man who killed my son was arrested with my newborn grandchild in his truck.

It went on: Please pray for our family. Please help us keep him away from her.

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