The train ran the coast line for six more weeks, and I ran it.
Every trip, I checked the transport paperwork against the actual stops. Every trip, I walked car six last, after the passengers had settled, and I counted the trays and locked the service closet myself. Bridget worked the forward cars. She did not ask me for anything, and I did not stand behind her, and there were nights when I passed her in the galley and we did not speak at all, and that was the closest thing to peace the two of us had ever managed.
The department took my protocol in November. The man who read it was a division superintendent named Osei, and he read all eleven pages at his desk without looking up, and when he finished he said, "You are the witness in the Halloway case."
"I am."
"And you wrote this."
"I d
