Josie speaks up, gentle but firm. He wouldn't have wanted you carrying this alone. He believed in second chances. He told me that more than once. Maybe this is yours, she says.
Help us finish what he started. Frank looks at both of them for a long moment, eyes wet. I'd like that, he says. More than you know. That evening, the three of them sit together at Frank's kitchen table.
Old case files spread out between coffee cups and a half-eaten pie. Frank walks them through what he remembers piece by piece, careful and thorough. Your father kept his own notes, he says. Separate from the official file. Where?
Addie asks, leaning forward. He never told me. Exactly. Said it was safer that way for all of us. A man like Walter didn't trust paper he didn't control himself.
Josie pulls out her own notebook, flipping to a page near the back. He used to write things in shorthand, she says. Half code, half habit. I found pages like that in a box after he passed. Never understood them.
She slides the notebook across the table. Frank studies the handwriting. Something shifting behind his eyes. I know this shorthand, he says slowly. He taught it to me once years ago for notes we didn't want showing up in official reports.
Together, the three of them start working through the old pages slow and careful. Names, numbers, a location marked only by a small drawn star. It's well past midnight before they stop. Eyes tired, coffee gone cold. But something has shifted in the room.
A door cracked open after 9 years. Tomorrow, Addie says, closing the notebook gently. We find this location. Tomorrow, Josie agrees. Frank walks them to the door steadier than he's felt in years.
Your father would be proud of both of you, he says. I hope you know that. We're starting to, Josie says. Thanks to you. Word of what happened at the diner spreads through Marlo Creek by nightfall.
By morning, it's the only thing anyone in town wants to talk about. Some people whisper about the Mallister sisters with quiet excitement, almost hope. Others, especially those who depend on Whitmore Construction for work, stay carefully silent. Fear and gratitude, living in the same house, just like Rosie always said. Chase hears about the deputies warning from three different people before noon.
Each version bigger than the last. Guns, lawsuits, federal agents on the way. He laughs it off with his co-workers loud easy the way he always does alone in his truck that evening. He doesn't feel like laughing at all. He thinks about the folded bills about Grant's hands slipping into that apron.
About how easy it had felt in the moment and how heavy it feels now. He doesn't call Grant. He doesn't call anyone. He just drives around for a while longer than he needs to before heading home. At the Whitmore estate, Everett Whitmore hears the story before lunch.