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“By chance, did they give you my wallet?”
“I’ve got it right here.” Pulling it out of his back pocket, Kodiak tried to pass it over to his father. He waved his hand away.
“Open it.” Jarrid tipped his chin. “There’s a key with a number on it.”
Small and silver, 319 was etched into the metal. “This one?”
Rubbing circles on Charlotte’s little back, he nodded. “That’s to a safety deposit box. Citizens Bank of Decatur. The main branch on Water Street.”
“I know it.”
“Once I’m dead, on your way out of town, go get what’s in it. And not until then, you hear me?”
“Yes,” he answered with a nod.
Inhaling Charlotte’s sweet baby smell, Jarrid held his lips to her brow. “And don’t ever come back here.”
No worries. Wasn’t planning to.
Showing off her two bottom teeth, Charlotte patted her grandfather’s face. In turn, he kissed her cheek. Linnea stepped in, taking her daughter back.
“Hate me that much, do you?”
“You’re not the least bit sorry, are you?” Her emotions raw, she held the baby to her chest.
“Linnea, always the defiant one.” Jarrid chuckled, tipping his head to look up at her. “Now what do I have to be sorry for?”
“What you did to Seth. To me. My mother.” Linnea glared at him.
His eyes shimmering, he closed them and sighed. “All I ever did was love her.”
“You don’t know what it is to love anybody.” Her pain-filled voice punched a hole in Kodiak’s heart. “She’s dead because of you.”
“Nothing could be further from the truth.” Jarrid held his hand out, but Linnea stepped away from his reach. “Is that what Catherine told you?”
“She didn’t have to.”
“I’m not sorry for anything, daughter. God fulfilled his promise.” Beckoning her to come closer, she went to him. Gripping her wrist in his bony fingers, he chuckled softly and grinned. “Has not the one God made you? He created Eve from the rib of Adam. Flesh of his flesh. Bone of his bone. As I have given you to Seth, and he to you. Is there any greater gift?”
Releasing her from his grasp, Jarrid closed his eyes. With his lips turned up at the corners, he slept.
He is mad.
Visibly shaken during the drive back to Crossfield, Linnea’s hands fidgeted in her lap. Kodiak reached across the console, taking her palm in his. She inhaled sharply through her nose, and lacing their fingers together, leaned against his shoulder.
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.” She squeezed his hand tight. “If we were looking for some kind of validation, I guess that was it.”
He was surprised they got that much.
“How about we stop at the Dairy Queen on the way home? I’ll get you a Dilly Bar, just like I did when you were little.”
That always made you feel better.
“I’m not little anymore, but I won’t say no.”
Driving past the high school, the football field where Jonathan took his life, Kodiak diverted his gaze. He went to grab his pen from the console, but then he remembered Charlotte was with them.
