Page 146 of The River We Remember

“I want to see her,” Bluestone said.

“She’s not ready for that, Noah. Not yet anyway.”

“I want to see her.” And what was in his face was in his voice now.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

The two men stood with the bars between them, both unmoving in their resolve.

Then Bluestone said the one thing that could make Brody crack: “If it was the woman you loved, would you stay away?”

Brody thought of the woman he loved, the women, and he unlocked the cell. “Let’s go, then.”

Back at the desk, he said to Evans, “Give me a pair of cuffs, Hank.”

Evans opened a drawer in the desk and pulled out handcuffs and a key, which he handed to Brody.

“We’re going to the Bluestone farm, Hank,” Brody said. “You hear anything about Creasy or those two missing boys, you let me know.”

“I will. When this is over, you should talk to Doc about that face of yours. So red you’re looking Indian.” He glanced at Bluestone, shrugged a kind of apology.

The sheriff cuffed Bluestone, then knelt and ran his hand over Hector’s head and down the soft fur of his back. “Got to leave again, boy. You be good for Hank.” He stood. “Let’s go, Noah.”

By the time they arrived, night had descended and the moon was on the rise. Graff met them at the door. He eyed Bluestone, and it was clear that he thought the man’s presence wasn’t a good idea. But it was Bluestone’s home and Bluestone’s wife and Brody’s call, so Graff stepped aside. They met Doc Porter coming from the bedroom.

“How is she?” Bluestone asked.

“Bruised mostly. I’ve given her something for the pain and to help her relax. It would be good, though, if she went to the ER or to my office.”

Bluestone turned to Brody and held up his cuffed wrists. “Best if she doesn’t see me like this.”

Brody took off the cuffs and walked Bluestone into the room, where Charlie Bauer sat with Kyoko.

KYOKO HAD HEARD his voice in the house, heard him coming, and she’d whispered, “Oh, God, no.”

But there he was in the doorway, and Charlie saw in him the same kind of stone that she’d seen in Graff. Shattered. The moment he saw Kyoko, his heart had broken. His face betrayed nothing, but his eyes, those windows on his soul, showed everything.

Kyoko must have seen it, too. Because now she was not weak. She was not weeping. She said, “Come here, Noah.”

From the doorway, Brody looked at the room’s open window, then he looked at Charlie. She gave him a nod, letting him know that Noah Bluestone would not depart that way. He stepped back and disappeared, leaving them alone.

Noah walked to his wife and sat on the bed, and Charlie wasn’t sure she’d ever seen a man try so hard not to cry.

Kyoko reached up and touched his face. “It will be all right.” She smiled gently. “They’ve tried in every possible way to ruin us, but we are not ruined, Noah.”

“I should have been here,” he said.

“You’re here now.”

He dropped his gaze, as if he could not meet her eyes.

“Look at me, Noah.” She waited until he did. “Everything passes. We know this, you and me. Everything. This will pass, too.”

“Do you hurt?” he asked.

“Not much.” She squeezed his hand. “Mostly when I look at you.”

“I love you,” he said. And all the tears he could not cry were in those three words.