"Nobody will notice one more man walking past the door."
"He is going to come for Eli, Beau."
"Soon."
"And when he comes, I don't want you in this room."
"Because if you're here, you won't listen."
"What needs to happen here is something else."
Beau stared at her.
"Maggie, he may have a weapon."
"I know."
"He's twice your size."
"I know."
"Maggie."
"Beau."
She turned her face up to him.
Her eyes were the eyes of the woman he married 22 years ago.
The woman who had buried their son.
Built a clinic on the east side.
Spent every day of her adult life walking into rooms full of people in pain and saying, I am here, and meaning it.
"He is a man who lost his son."
"So am I."
"Let me talk to him."
Beau stood beside her chair another moment.
Then he leaned down.
He kissed the top of her head gently.
He walked out.
He brought Cyrus back.
He whispered three sentences to Cyrus in the doorway.
Cyrus's face changed.
Then Cyrus nodded once.
He took a position inside the room against the wall behind the door, where someone entering would not immediately see him.
Beau went to the chapel.
He sat in the back pew.
He bent his head.
He did not pray this time.
He had used up his prayer for the day.
He waited.
It was 8:14 when the door of Eli's room opened.
Maggie did not look up.
She was holding Eli's hand.
Watching the sleeping boy's face.
She did not turn when she heard the door.
"Hello, Tank," she said.
The man in the doorway froze.
Roland Mueller was six-foot-five and built like the trucks he had driven for 30 years.
His beard was iron gray.
His hair was pulled into a short tail at the base of his neck.
The scar ran from below his collar to behind his right ear.
He stood with one hand on the doorframe.
The other was inside his coat.
His face moved through three expressions in less than a second.
He stepped inside.
He closed the door.
"Maggie," he said. "I just wanted to see how he was."
"He's going to live, Tank."
"That's good."
"That's real good."
"Sit down, Tank."
There was a chair on the opposite side of the bed.
He did not sit.
He stayed by the door.
His hand remained inside his coat.
"I can't stay long, Mags."
"I just wanted to look in."
"I'm heading back downstairs."
"Sit down, Tank."
He looked at her.
She finally turned.