"The sweater's red," Ruby said patiently, as if to someone very slow. "And anyway that's not why. I always do her in red." She looked up at Petra with absolute seriousness. "Because you're the one who comes. Every time. Even the time it took you till almost dark. You always come for her."
Petra didn't say anything at all. She didn't seem able to. She reached down and put her hand on Ruby's purple hat, the way James had at the gate, and left it there.
Ron came back at a quarter to four. He stood at the end of the bench with his hands in his jacket pockets and his reading glasses swinging and looked at all of them for a long moment, at the sleeping old woman under her red coat, at Petra, at Ruby on the floor, at James with his shoulder gone numb an hour ago, and James got ready.
"I pulled the footage," Ron said.
"I figured."
"I had to. There's a hold on a long-distance train, a police call, and three incident reports going up the chain, and every one of them is going to ask why one of my electricians badged onto a live platform without authorization and held up the Zephyr. And why his nine-year-old was down there with him." Ron took his glasses off the cord and folded them and put them in his breast pocket, which James had never once seen him do. "I watched it. All of it. The officer, the year thing, her running off. You going down the ramp. The cart coming back up." He was quiet a moment. "I watched you bring her back across the hall. Sumner driving that cart like it was a float in the Bud Billiken parade."
"Ron—"
"I'm not done." Ron rubbed his face with one big hand. "I've got to write it up. You know I've got to write it up. You're suspended with pay pending a review, starting now, through Wednesday. There'll be a hearing Thursday morning. Union rep, me, somebody from Amtrak HR, probably somebody from Police. I'm not going to lie to you, James, it could go bad. Unauthorized platform access is a big one. Lying to a gate agent is a big one. The kid on the platform is the biggest one." He looked at Ruby, who looked steadily back. "I'll say what I saw. That's all I can do. I'll say what I saw."
"Okay," James said.
"Go home. Take the kid home. Take—" He gestured vaguely at the bench, at Iris and Petra and the suitcase. "Take everybody home." He started to turn away, and then turned back. "Ruby."
"Yes, Mr. Winnick?"