Page 147 of The River We Remember

“Still?” she asked.

“Forever.”

“You see,” she said. “We are not ruined.”

Noah leaned down and kissed her forehead.

Then Brody was in the doorway again. “We need to go back now.”

Noah said to Charlie, “You’ll stay?”

“Of course I will.”

He looked up at Brody. “And Graff?”

“Graff stays,” Brody said.

“I’ll come back,” Noah said to Kyoko.

She smiled at him again. “I know you will. I’ll be waiting.”

Noah stood and walked out the door with Brody.

In the quiet of that windless evening, Kyoko said, as if to reassure herself, “We are not ruined.”

IN THE FARMYARD outside, Bluestone held out his hands. Once again, Brody placed the cuffs on his wrists. The moon was climbing above Black Earth County and the Alabaster River, and the three men—Bluestone, Brody, and Graff—cast long black moon shadows on the ground.

Bluestone said, “Creasy slipped away at Quinn’s. On foot?”

“I’m guessing so,” Brody said.

To Graff, Bluestone said, “And here? How did he approach my wife?”

Graff said, “She told me she didn’t hear him coming, so on foot I’m guessing.”

Bluestone said nothing more. Brody opened the back door of the cruiser and Bluestone got in.

“You’re okay here tonight, Connie?” Brody asked.

“I’ve got it covered. Any word on those missing boys?”

“Nothing yet.”

“Long night, looks like.”

“Looks like.” Brody got behind the wheel.

He’d driven only a couple of hundred yards down the dirt lane when Bluestone said from the back, “Pull over.”

Brody glanced into the rearview mirror. “What?”

“Pull over. I’m going to be sick.”

Brody slowed but didn’t stop.

“I’m going to be sick,” Bluestone said again. “You want me to puke in your car?”

The man had held himself together at the farmhouse, but now Brody saw the impact from that emotional trauma, the physical effect, the unraveling, which often came in the form of vomiting. He braked, got quickly out, and opened the back door.