When Love Walked Away novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: The Runner

On Saturday the statement ran on the local news, under a photograph of Brodie in his bank suit.

It said the Dalton family mourned a tragic accident caused by an employee of a private club.

It said Mrs. Dalton had been unreachable during working hours, and that Mr. Dalton asked for privacy.

I read it standing in my kitchen with my coffee going cold.

Gabe read it over my shoulder and said a word I had never heard him say.

On Sunday the sheriff's substation called and asked me to come in.

It was a low tan building off Alvernon with a flag and a vending machine.

The social worker was waiting in the lobby, holding a clipboard and a paper sack of cinnamon rolls she had clearly forgotten she had bought.

"I sit on the county's child fatality review," she said. "I'm sorry to be the one."

"You were in the hospital hallway."

"I was. I wrote down what Mr. Dalton said, and I wrote down that his story changed twice."

She handed me the sack.

"His attorney called me Friday. He said you left your daughter in the sole care of a man you knew to be unfit."

I set the cinnamon rolls on the bench.

"Unfit."

"His word."

"He is the one who put her in the car."

"I know. I have to hear everyone, Mrs. Dalton, even when I have already heard it."

Behind the glass doors of the lobby, there were voices.

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