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about to make some kind of decision, aren’t you?” Brie asked.
    “You watch too many movies, Detective Canfield. I’m glad you’re okay, Brie. A day didn’t go by that I didn’t worry about you. I tried calling you, hundreds of times. I want to make sure you know that. I’ll see you around. How long are you staying?”
    “A few days. Thanks for worrying. We can’t get it back, can we? I’m talking about that wonderful time in our lives when we were kids. So often I want yesterday. Is that wrong, Bode?”
    “You can’t live in the past, Brie. It’s what’s ahead that’s important—today and tomorrow. Life. Memories are what they are, and are best left alone until there’s nothing else to occupy our minds. That’s my advice for the day.”
    “I’m sorry about Callie, Bode. I know—”
    “You think you know. It was great seeing you again, Brie. I really miss all of you. Whatever else you may believe, believe this: you’re part of my life, and I don’t want to see it fade away until we only communicate with Christmas cards.”
    Brie whooped in horror. “Who is it that never calls, never writes and only shows up when there’s a crisis of some kind?”
    “The fact that I show up is proof enough that I care.”
    “Like my graduation?”
    “Yes. My advice to you now is go take a nap—you look like you could stand some rest. If you don’t like that idea, pick some flowers for Mama Pearl and walk around the grounds. Get a feel for it all over again.”
    “Yes, sir,” Brie said, ripping off a smart salute.
    Bode’s shoulders shook with laughter as he pedaled out to the main road, but the moment he was out of sight of Parker land he sobered.
    Forty-five minutes later Bode Jessup was back in his storefront law office on Main Street. He wheeled his bike through the back door and parked it in a storage room. It was his one treasure left over from childhood, and he wouldn’t part with it for a pot of gold. Satisfied that his treasure was secure, he headed to a tiny, sparkling washroom, where he washed his face and brushed his hair. He yanked at his string tie—his concession to a real tie—and pulled it over his head. He shed his jeans and stepped into a pair of khaki-colored twill trousers. The Keds stayed on his feet. A new business day.
    Bode Jessup’s office was normally neat, everything in its place. Today, because of his work yesterday and into the night, it was cluttered with boxes and barrels. He was packing up shop and moving on. He hadn’t lied when he said he had to go to court later in the day. He had one last motion to plead, and until then he’d be here to supervise the labeling and transfer of the boxes and barrels to UPS. He could feel his shoulders start to slump when he sat down in his chair, a gift from Judge Avery Summers when he opened his family law practice. It was worn in now. UPS had promised an oversize packing crate so it could be shipped with his other things.
    Bode sat down and closed his eyes. He heard his sixty-year-old secretary, to whom he paid only a pittance, set down a cup of coffee on his desk. She always knew just the right spot to place it. His eyes still closed, he reached for the brew. It wasn’t half as good as Mama Pearl’s, but he needed it.
    Jesus, how had he gotten to this place in time where he was giving up everything he loved and cared about? He could feel his body start to tremble as he sipped at the coffee. He had to get himself together, or he was going to blow everything. His head felt like a home for nesting bumblebees, buzzing with fierce intensity. He was leaving the only mother he’d ever known, leaving Callie to another man, and running out on Brie and Sela, the people he loved as much as he loved life. Did that mean he was a coward? He didn’t know anymore.
    He wished now he’d had the guts to tell Callie weeks ago that he was quitting, that they weren’t going to work together when she returned from her honeymoon. Callie an attorney . .