Wunder stayed in the hallway, watching the door, waiting for her to come back in. She didn’t, but he couldn’t bring himself to go back into his room. It was suddenly the last place in the world he wanted to be.

It was less than an hour later that the doorbell rang.

Wunder was sure it must be his mother, keyless and cold. He went to the front door and opened it.

But it wasn’t his mother on the other side.

Standing on the porch was Officer Soto.

“Hey there, Wunder,” the officer said.

“Oh. Hello,” Wunder said.

Officer Soto wasn’t wearing his uniform. He was wearing jeans and an old blue letterman jacket from Oak Wood High School. The patch on the front showed an oak tree. Two of the branches, spreading up and out, ended in hands. Wunder knew it was supposed to look like the tree was about to catch a football, but there was no football on the jacket. It looked, to him, like the tree was reaching up toward a blue sky.

“You don’t have to invite me in,” Officer Soto said. “I can talk to you right here for a minute.” He cracked his knuckles. Pop, pop, pop, they went, like little exclamations, little bursts of emotion leaving him. “Sure is weird to see you without a smile.”

Wunder waited. Whenever he saw Officer Soto lately, there was bad news. He wondered what the bad news would be this time.

“Tomás told me that the tree—” Officer Soto said. “Well, he told me that you wanted the tree for—well, for your sister. He said that maybe the old woman wanted it too, but that really it was for you and your sister and he thought I oughta—” The officer paused. He tried to crack his knuckles again, but they were already popped. “Well, I know—I know things have been tough for you. For your parents too. When my dad died—” He paused again. “Well, that thing’s been sitting in my office for days. It’s starting to fall apart. And I thought—you weren’t planning on selling it or anything, were you?”

Wunder shook his head slowly, cautiously. “No, sir,” he replied.

“And you’re not going to give it to the, uh, the DoorWay House lady, are you?”

Wunder shook his head again.

“Well, then, anyway, there’s no reason I can see that you can’t—I mean, no charges were filed, so it’s not evidence. Benedict didn’t ask for it back or anything. And after everything you kids went through to get it … Well, we were just going to throw it away. So…”

“You’re going to let me have it?” Wunder asked, even though he knew he shouldn’t. Officer Soto seemed to be trying very hard to not say exactly that.

The officer shrugged. “Well, you know,” he said.

He turned to leave. And Wunder knew that he should let him leave, he shouldn’t push things, not with all the trouble he’d been in, all the trouble he’d caused. And anyway, he didn’t care, but he found himself asking, “Have you heard anything else about the witch—I mean, about the old woman? The DoorWay House woman?”