Laura Bennett stopped with the tray still in her hands. Across the small cafe, an elderly stranger was staring at the wall behind her.Five minutes earlier, Laura had found him outside in the snow. His coat was soaked. His hands were shaking. And when she asked where he was going, he had simply said, "Anywhere that isn't home."Laura had brought him inside. She wrapped a thick plaid blanket around his shoulders. She gave him hot coffee, soup, and a sandwich. She expected nothing in return. She didn't even know his last name.But now the old man was staring at a framed photograph as if he had seen a ghost.Laura followed his eyes. The picture had been hanging there for 12 years. It showed a man in his 40s standing beside an old blue pickup truck. He was smiling. One hand rested on the shoulder of a teenage girl."That was my father."The old man's face lost color. "What was his name?"Laura frowned. "David Bennett."The stranger slowly lowered his coffee. "David Bennett.""Yes."His hands began trembling again, but this time Laura knew it wasn't from the cold."Did you know him?"The man looked at her for several seconds. He said nothing. Then he whispered:"I was the judge who sentenced your father to prison."Laura dropped the spoon she was holding. It hit the wooden floor. The sound seemed impossibly loud. Outside, snow continued falling. Inside, neither of them moved.Laura stared at him. "What did you say?"The old man removed the blanket from his shoulders. "I should go."Laura stepped between him and the door. "No.""Miss Bennett—""You don't get to say something like that and walk out." He looked at her. Laura's voice shook. "What is your name?""Arthur Collins."She knew it. Of course, she knew it. Judge Arthur Collins.Twenty-two years earlier, his name had appeared in every newspaper article Laura's mother saved in a cardboard box beneath her bed: State of Vermont v. David Bennett.Her father had been 39 years old. He worked as a maintenance supervisor at North Valley Children's Hospital. One winter night, a fire broke out in a storage wing. A security guard died. Two employees were injured. Investigators determined that someone had disabled part of the fire alarm system.David Bennett was accused. Prosecutors said he had bypassed the alarms during unauthorized electrical work. David insisted he had not. The jury convicted him of criminal negligence and evidence tampering.Judge Arthur Collins sentenced him to eight years in prison.Laura had been 14. She remembered the courtroom, her mother crying, her father turning around before officers took him away. He looked directly at Laura and said, "Take care of your mother." Those were the last words she heard him speak as a free man.Laura stared at Arthur. "You sentenced him.""Yes.""He lost six years.""I know."