the other easy to condemn.\n\nBut a child nearly died in a ditch because adults kept believing appearances were evidence.\n\nThat was the aftershock Rick could never quite shake.

Not only what Mercer had done, but how long he had been allowed to do it under the shelter of a badge and a practiced voice.

Ava survived because a man the town feared bothered to stop in a blizzard and kneel in the snow.

Sometimes that was the truth no one wanted: the biggest red flag was never the face people were warned about.

It was how comfortable everyone became when cruelty came dressed as respectability.