Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger

forever in peace. Which was also very nearly what I’d been thinking. And he nodded to the other men and they each took a strap end.
The mortician said, Frank, when we lift, would you please remove the boards?
They lifted and I bent and slid the two-by-fours from underneath and the men slowly lowered the coffin. When it was settled they drew the straps back up and my father said, Gus, would you like a hand?
No, Captain, Gus said. I’ve got all day and I intend to take my time.
My father shook hands with the sheriff and with the mortician and we returned to our vehicles and left Gus to the duty of sealing the grave with the dirt he’d removed to create it.
    At home my father said, I’m going back into town. I have some details to take care of with Sheriff Gregor and with Mr. van der Waal. He left again in the Packard. Jake was nowhere to be seen. From the church across the street came the sound of Ariel playing the organ and my mother singing. I changed my clothes and went to the church and asked about Jake.
    Apparently Danny O’Keefe’s great-uncle wandered off, my mother said. Jake went to help Danny find him. Where’s your father?
I was surprised to hear that Danny had a great-uncle in New Bremen. He’d told me most of his relatives lived near Granite Falls. I said, He had to go back into town. Then I said, You let Jake go out of the yard? He was grounded, same as me.
She was studying the music sheets in her hands and not really paying attention to me. They were working on a piece, a chorale that Ariel had composed for the Fourth of July celebration which would take place in another week. His friend needed help, Mother said. I told him it was all right.
Can I help them, too?
Hmmmm? She frowned at something on the sheets.
Ariel sat on the organ bench and smiled at me in a conspiratorial way. You should let Frankie help, she said. The search will go faster.
All right, all right, my mother said waving me away. Go.
I looked to Ariel and asked, Where’d they head?
Danny’s house, she said. Fifteen minutes ago.
And I was gone before my mother could change her mind.
I ran to Danny O’Keefe’s house which stood at the western edge of the Flats and was in sight of the river. His mother was hanging laundry on the line in the backyard. She was a small woman not much taller than I with black hair and almond eyes and the shading and bone structure of the Sioux. Although Danny never talked about his lineage I’d heard that his mother came from the Upper Sioux community, which was along the Minnesota River well to the west. She wore tan Capris and a sleeveless green top and white sneakers. She was a teacher. I’d been in her fifth-grade classroom and I liked her. As I came into the yard she was bending to her laundry basket.
Hi, Mrs. O’Keefe, I said cheerfully. I’m looking for Danny.
She lifted a blue towel and pinned it to the line. She said, I sent him to find his great-uncle.
I know. I came to help.
That’s very nice of you, Frank, but I think Danny can handle it.
My brother’s with him.
I could tell that surprised her and for some reason didn’t seem to please her.
I said, Do you know which way they went?
She frowned and said, His uncle likes to fish. I sent him to look along the river.
Thank you. We’ll find him.
She didn’t look particularly encouraged.
I ran off and in a couple of minutes I was walking the river’s edge.
I didn’t much like fishing but I knew a lot of guys who did and I knew where they fished. There were a couple of favorite places depending on what you were after. If it was catfish there was a long deep channel that ran behind an old lumberyard. If it was northern pike there was a sandbar a quarter mile farther on that half dammed the river and created a pool favored by those big fleshy fish. And of course there was the trestle half a mile outside of town. The north side of the river opposite the Flats was all cultivated fields with farmhouses hunkered in the shade of cottonwoods and