Walter Mallister's star cleaned, polished, displayed where everyone who walks in can see it. Rosie had it framed herself, refusing to let anyone else pay for it. Least I can do, she'd said, hanging it with her own two hands. Beside it, a photograph, a young sheriff squinting into the sun outside the old courthouse. Someone found a second photograph, too, tucked in an old County Archive box.
Walter Mallister, younger still, holding two identical baby girls, one in each arm, grinning at the camera like he'd already won every fight worth winning. Rosie framed that one, too, hanging it just below the first. Frank stands in front of it every morning now, just for a moment. A quiet salute the kind old officers give each other without needing words. "Morning, Walter, " he says softly.
Every single day. We finished it. Finally, Josie watches him do it sometimes, warmth spreading through her chest each time. Some promises take 9 years to keep. They still count every one of them.
On a quiet Saturday, before Addie heads back, the sisters drive to the cemetery. Their father's grave sits beneath an old oak tree, modest, well-kept. Someone had been tending it for years. Neither of them ever thought to ask who. They learn later it was Frank quietly caring for it every spring for 9 years.
He never once mentioned it to anyone. A small stone bench sits nearby, weathered but sturdy, clearly built to last. Frank had installed it himself 3 years back telling no one why. Somewhere to sit he'd figured for whenever family finally came looking. He never imagined it would take this long.
He never stopped hoping anyway. Josie kneels down brushing a few fallen leaves from the stone. We finished it, Dad, " she says quietly. "Just like you asked. " Addie sets a small bouquet of wild flowers against the base of the headstone.
"Took us longer than it should have, " she says. "Sorry about that. " Josie sets the old badge down beside the flowers for just a moment, letting the metal catch the afternoon light one last time before tucking it away again. "He'd probably tell us not to apologize, " she says. "Just to keep going.
" "That sounds like him, " Addie agrees. A small smile breaking through. They sit together in the grass a while saying nothing else out loud. The wind moves steady through the oak leaves overhead. The unhurried way afternoons move in towns like this.
He'd be proud, Addie finally says. Not just of the case, of who we became getting there. Josie nods, throat tight. I think he already knew who we'd become. That's probably why he trusted us with it in the first place.