Part 5
Decker wrote down the request. No one opened a calendar.
Daniel waited a few seconds, then gathered his papers. He asked again that the written record include the unfinished presentation. Erin held the door while he moved his chair aside for Claire and signaled Kestrel up.
In the elevator, Claire kept her eyes on the changing floor number.
They were on the road to school when she spoke.
“She could say every one of those sentences without believing them.”
Daniel watched a truck turn through the intersection ahead.
“She could.”
“Then what did we get?”
“A record. People responsible for following it. It gets harder to pretend nothing happened once the promises are written down.”
“Somebody has to check them.”
“Yes.”
She watched a mechanic carry a stack of tires through an open bay.
“Kestrel bothered her.”
“She doesn’t know him.”
“He spent the whole meeting on the floor.”
Daniel glanced at her, then back to the road.
“People can be afraid of a dog that isn’t doing anything.”
Claire was quiet for a while.
“Was that why you took him on Tuesday?”
“No. We were together for work that morning. He’s my partner.”
“So you stayed together.”
“Unless there’s a reason we shouldn’t.”
She nodded, looking through the window again.
At school, Daniel held the chair steady during her transfer. Kestrel watched from his compartment behind the divider, ears tracking Claire as she headed up the entrance ramp.
Daniel waited by the driver’s door until she was inside.
On the passenger seat lay the material he could share publicly. Fuller records existed, but he would not bring them into a conference room to settle an argument. If the district needed more verification, the proper offices could provide it through official channels.
He fastened his seat belt and drove back to work.
Kestrel’s Saturday walk was deliberately easy. Daniel let him choose the interesting patches along a gravel lane and kept the pace comfortable for his hip. Away from a working search, the dog had time to spend on a single muddy clump of grass before trotting back to Daniel’s side.
They returned to the smell of hot butter.
Claire was at the lowered counter Daniel had installed two years earlier. She had a spatula in one hand and the expression of someone prepared to defend the contents of the pan.
He looked at the browned edges of the eggs.
“High heat?”
“It didn’t start that high.”
“Pans get ambitious.”
She put his serving on a plate and slid it across.
They ate without mentioning school. In the afternoon, they watched a program about animals living far below the ocean’s surface. Claire corrected the narrator, listened again, and conceded that she’d heard him wrong.
Kestrel sprawled against their legs. His head had found a cushion Daniel usually kept off limits. Daniel reached over it for the remote and left him where he was.
On Sunday, the garage bench held paper instead of equipment.
Audrey, a former federal investigator now consulting, had replied to the factual account Daniel sent Friday evening. They’d worked the same missing-person case two years earlier. Her response contained three questions and several district reporting requirements he needed to read before Monday’s follow-up.
He answered her questions, checked the requirements, and divided his notes according to what the next meeting might become. The original classroom incident had one sheet. The dog allegation had another. Promised corrections went on a third.
Claire read most of the weekend. Daniel checked in without asking her to produce a conversation. Raising her alone had taught him that sometimes she wanted him close and sometimes she wanted him to stop standing in the doorway.
At bedtime, she asked whether an auditorium microphone was difficult to use.
“We haven’t chosen a room yet,” he said.
“I’m aware.”
“We could try the microphone before anyone came in.”
“That would be useful.”
She closed her book and put it on the nightstand.
Later, Daniel’s phone lit beside the papers on the bench.
Erin apologized for the late message. Mrs. Haskett had submitted an addendum. It alleged that Daniel had brought Kestrel on Tuesday to create fear and that his conduct at Friday’s meeting had been hostile. Human resources had marked it for discussion at Monday’s ten o’clock meeting.
Erin didn’t think he should learn about it after sitting down.
Daniel read it twice, then looked at his notes from Friday.
He could see Mrs. Haskett watching the dog. He remembered believing she was reconsidering. He set the phone beside the sheet headed with Kestrel’s name.
His reply to Erin was brief: a thank-you, with no request that she do anything more.
For several minutes, he sat without touching the papers. Then he checked the time, switched off the bench light, and went inside.
The phone rang before five.
“Donovan? Grant Hollis. Sorry about the hour.”
Daniel sat up. The staff sergeant served alongside Daniel in the regional canine unit, which operated from a federal facility on the east side of town. Calls from Hollis before daylight generally had a reason.
“What’s happened?”
“The district contacted command. There’s a conduct complaint involving Kestrel, and they’ve asked us to confirm your status. I need the background.”
Daniel began with Claire’s assignment. He kept the account short and gave the dates in order. Hollis listened without breaking in.
When Daniel finished, the sergeant asked, “What behavior did they report from the dog?”
“Lying beside my chair.”
“Badly?”
Daniel rubbed his eyes. “Must have been.”
Hollis let out a breath.
“They used his unit inventory number. We now have an allegation about the use of an assigned working dog. We have to answer that part.”
“I didn’t intend to make this a command issue.”
“You didn’t send the inquiry.”
Kestrel appeared in the bedroom doorway. Daniel lowered a hand, and the dog settled just outside the room.
“Major Arnett’s seen the correspondence,” Hollis continued. “She asked for the witness accounts from the meetings. She wants your account before replying.”
“What time?”
“Eight.”
Daniel checked the bedside clock. There was room between that and the district meeting, provided nothing ran late.
“I can make eight.”
“Bring the paperwork…”
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