"I don't know what else to say." Danny's voice broke entirely on the last word, and he swallowed, and Wade watched his Adam's apple jerk in his thin neck. "I've been trying to figure out what to say to you since May. I used to lie awake and practice it. I never got anything better than that."
"Did you think I'd never find out?"
"I figured you would. I figured it'd be a deputy, though. Not you."
The back door of the house banged. Wade did not turn around. He heard Claire's boots on the frozen yard, fast, half running, and then she came around the corner of the barn in her unzipped coat and stopped when she saw the two of them, and she put one hand on the barn boards as if she needed them to hold her up.
"Danny," she said. "I tried to call you. I called all day."
"Phone's shut off," the boy said, not looking away from Wade. "Since Wednesday. I'm sorry, Mrs. Hollister. I thought he was in Billings till Saturday. You said Saturday."
"I know I did."
Wade turned and looked at his wife.