Chapter 19: Shelter Hallway

The family shelter was a converted motel two blocks from the hospital.

We found the second-floor hallway full of people.

Women in sweatshirts leaned in doorways with children on their hips.

At the far end, outside a door numbered 214, Dexter Lyle was on his knees.

His expensive watch was gone from his wrist.

"Cam, open the door."

"Go away."

"I lost the house. The bank sent a notice. The payments stopped and they gave me ten days."

"That's your problem."

"It's our problem. I did it all for us."

I stopped ten feet short, with Margo beside me.

Dexter saw me and did not even stand up.

"Great. Come to gloat."

"I came because Camille wrote."

The door of 214 opened a hand's width.

Camille stood in the gap in a borrowed gray sweatshirt, her hair flat, her face scrubbed bare.

She had not slept.

She looked past Dexter and met my eyes for one second.

Then she looked back down at the man on the floor.

"Say what you came to say," she said to him. "Say it with everybody listening."

Dexter climbed to his feet.

He saw the doorways full of watchers, and he lowered his voice, and he made it worse.

"Cam, I've figured it out. My sister in Tucson has a spare room. We take Jasper, we drive tonight, we start over."

"And the baby?"

"The baby's in the hospital."

"She's in the NICU, Dexter."

"Right. So she stays. The state places babies all the time. Or your sister takes her."

The hallway went quiet.

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