Abruptly the silver-haired man answered his phone, spoke briefly, and all the adults rose as one. Colin stood and started to pick up his tray, but Celeste halted him with, “No, leave it there.” She hurried over and pulled out a chair next to where he stood.
The older woman with the severe face said, “Celeste, they’re waiting.”
“You go ahead, I’ll be right up.” Her gaze never left his face. “Do you trust me, Colin?”
“Yes.”
“They want you to be present for what’s going to happen. I don’t like the idea, but …” She shrugged. “I’m just one voice. Never mind. I want you to listen carefully. Your father is coming with … No, Colin. Look at me. There is no reason to be afraid. You’re not going to be alone with him. I’m there, and all these other people, they’re all on your side. Now I want you to take a deep breath andcalm down.”
He tried. He really did. But the fear of losing everything this day had held left his muscles jerking slightly. Like they were being pulled by tight electric strings.
She rose to her feet. “All right. Let’s get this over with.”
They were the last to enter the conference room. This place was completely different from where Arnold had examined him. The table was polished wood and so large sixteen leather chairs on swivel bases could fit around the gleaming surface.
Roger Eames was seated with his back to the windows. When Colin entered, just his eyes shifted. Two grey gun barrels that held nothing. No love, no recognition, no rage. Cop’s eyes. Colin would have stopped and run away, but Celeste was there behind him, her hand on his back, guiding him down the long line of adults seated across from his father. Past the silver-haired man and Arnold and the other woman and now two more, a man and woman, both young and wearing similar charcoal-grey suits. The adults watched as he slipped into the chair and Celeste pushed him up close to the table. Some of those on his side of the table had to lean over to see him. Once he was settled, the young woman seated next to him said, “You were saying?”
A slender black man with angry eyes was seated to his father’s right. To his left was the mayor of Rocky Mount, a man with silver-grey hair and a heavily pockmarked face. They had once attended a barbecue cookout at the mayor’s house. The mayor had two teenage boys who looked like they would have happily bullied Colin had their father not been keeping a close watch. Colin thought the mayor held the same bullying manner as his sons.
The black man said, “We wish to register an official complaint against Dr. Celeste Talbot.”
The woman seated next to Colin was very attractive, buther voice matched the black attorney’s for harsh edges. “On what grounds?”
“She forcibly restrained Sheriff Eames, a highly decorated police officer, from approaching his own son.”
“I fail to see how the lady seated to my left couldforciblykeep the sheriff from doing much of anything.”
“You know very well what I mean. She ordered a local police officer to stop Sheriff Eames from approaching his son in what was undoubtedly a highly charged and emotionally distressing situation for them both.”
“Aren’t you forgetting something?”
“No,” the lawyer replied. “I am not.”
“There is the matter of why everyone had gathered in the first place.”
“That has nothing whatsoever to do with my complaint!”
The woman seated next to Colin smiled tightly. “I’m fairly certain the judge in family court will disagree with you on that point.”
The two attorneys acted as though they were the only people in the room. Colin felt the breath catch in his throat. Theyacted.They wereperforming.This confused him, like so much of adults’ behavior. He felt a gradual slipping away of all the wondrous events and the feelings that had carried him through the day.
In desperation, he tried to look at the people and their words from the perspective of what he and Arnold had been discussing. From logic. Deductive logic was impossible. There were too many unknowns to draw a straight-line conclusion. That was the term Arnold had returned to time and again. A straight-line calculation resulted in only one possible outcome. Abductive reasoning was needed here. Working with incomplete knowledge, searching for …
His father’s attorney said, “That you would even suggest taking this matter to court indicates you are far from possessing all the relevant materials.”
It was the silver-haired gentleman who said, “Enlighten us. Please. We’re all ears.”
Colin thought the attorney’s expression was theatrical. “I’m sorry, who exactly are you?”
The woman began, “Dr. Saunders is head of a trust. …”
“A trust.”
“Correct.”
“And his role here is …”
“An interested third party.”
