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“It’s always what counts,” he said. “Trust me.”
Janey sighed. Pityingly. “They have bullying all the time here. I read about it. You can’t just send Troy in there like you’re putting him into a … a bullfighting ring. You have topreparehim.”
“I did prepare him,” he said. “I prepared you both. School supplies, lunchboxes, all that.”
“Mum would say to fix his hair,” Janey said. “The first day is your firstimpression.”
“Fine,” he said. “I’ll do it. The teacher may bully him if he’s late, though.”
“Teachers don’tbully,”Janey said, even as Troy said, “I don’t want the teacher to bully me! We have to hurry!”
Yeah, he was acing the whole single father thing.
* * *
Four minutes until school started.Never mind. Nearly there.
Troy said, from his booster seat in the back, “Will you cuddle the dog heaps today, Dad? He’ll probably be scared, because he won’t be at home. And you should feed him something nice, like lollies. He already ate my sandwich, so he can have pudding now. Maybe he should have an ice cream, so he can get cooler.”
“You can’t feed a dog sweets,” Janey said. She was holding the dog, who was lickingherface now. If it had worms, Beckett was in trouble. “It’s bad for them. I could take him with me, Dad. I could put him in my backpack and just let him down to go potty.”
“That’ll be an excellent way to make an impression on your teachers,” he said. “No, you’re not taking him. I’ll take him. I’ll put him in a box or something in the trailer.”
“Don’t leave him in the car,” Janey said. “Cars are too hot for dogs. They can die.”
“Thanks,” he said. “I do know that, OK?”
Getting close now. They’d make it. Just.
That was when the lights started to flash red on the railroad crossing just as the car ahead of him went over the track. There were no trains as long as U.S. trains, especially the coal trains that ran through Montana. Those were endless.
He was already looking fast to the left. Nothing. Looking to the right. Yes, a train, sitting still down there, stopped.
The white arms waggled and jerked, about to start their descent. He put his foot down and followed the other car over the crossing.
“Dad,”Janey said. “The lights were flashing!”
“I know,” he said, the school in his sights. “Cutting it a bit fine. Don’t do that when you’re old enough to drive.” There was still no sound of a train coming behind him, though. Perfectly safe, like going through a yellow light. Not reckless and stupid.
Well, possibly reckless and stupid.
No, definitely reckless and stupid. He’d sit the kids down tonight and tell them …
A white SUV followed him into the school carpark.
With its lights flashing.
And a blip of its siren.
Brilliant.
3
A FLAMIN’ GALAH
On a Thursday in mid-September, with the tamaracks turning yellow on the mountain, Quinn McLaughlin looked at her watch and headed out her office door and toward the courtroom. Susanne, one of the deputies, was telling Andrea, the bailiff, “Yeah, that’s him. Just as hot as they say, too. Kind of a hardass, I hear.”
“Really?” Andrea asked. “He looks like a surfer dude. Never mind, hardass works too. No wife, right?” She saw Quinn and jumped a little. “Ready, Judge?”
