The child would not tell her account while the official stood beside her.
She kept looking at his boots. They were too clean for the yard, and he had placed one on the lower bar of the service fence as if preparing to climb over and settle the matter himself. Her guardian asked him to move back. He seemed offended by the request until Kellan repeated it without changing the words.
Then he stepped aside.
The child pointed to a grate half hidden by a freight partition.
“I heard them there.”
“How many?” Eli asked.
She shook her head. “People.”
“Did they say a name?”
