Chapter 22: The Home Visit

The caseworker walked through Emmett's shop with a clipboard and a flashlight.

She checked the heater, the smoke detector over the spare room door and the lock on the inside of it.

She opened the fridge.

She asked Emmett what he did with the solvents, and he showed her the steel cabinet he had bought on Saturday.

"I bought it Saturday," he said. "I'd have bought it sooner if somebody had told me what the county looks for."

She almost smiled.

She talked to Milo alone, at the kitchen table, with the door open.

I stood at the bottom of the stairs where she could see me.

I heard her ask him who lived in the house.

I heard him say, "Emmett, and Jo, and sometimes my dad. And my mom is at a motel, but she's moving."

"And who's in your family?"

He took his time.

"It's a long list," he said. "You have to write fast."

When she came out she put the clipboard under her arm.

"Mrs. MacIntosh," she said. "I've seen enough here."

"Then we're done?"

"I'd like to see the household where the complaint was filed. And I'd like you and Mr. MacIntosh to come."

"Why us?"

"Because the complaint names you. I'd rather you hear what's said than hear it afterward."

Bryce opened the front door of the Parma house before she knocked.

Zoey was behind him, in her school sweater, with her phone shut in her fist.

I saw the lighter squares on the living room wall where I had taken the photographs down.

Somebody had hung one back up.

It was the pumpkin patch, with me in the middle, and a child on each arm.

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