Hosted Christmas dinners.
And spent summer evenings sitting on the wooden porch swing while neighbors walked their dogs along the sidewalk.
Thomas died six years earlier after a sudden heart attack.
Since then, Evelyn had refused every suggestion that she move somewhere smaller.
“This is my home,” she told her son whenever he raised the subject.
Marcus understood.
His father had built the tomato beds himself.
He had repaired the porch railing.
Installed shelves in the garage.
And carved a small wooden sign that still hung beside the kitchen door.
PRICE FAMILY — HOME SINCE 1995.
Marcus looked at the sign whenever he returned.
It reminded him that some things were worth more than their market value.
That morning, Evelyn placed a plate of eggs and toast beside him.
“Eat.”
He smiled.
“I'm thirty-five, Mom.”
“And apparently thirty-five-year-olds don't need breakfast?”
Marcus laughed.
He picked up his fork.
His mother sat across from him.
Then she looked toward the folded newspaper beside his coffee.
The headline announced the appointment of Redbrook's new police chief.
A small photograph showed Marcus wearing a dark-blue dress uniform.
Evelyn smiled proudly.
“There he is.”
Marcus groaned.
“Mom.”
“What?”
“You've shown that paper to everybody.”
“Not everybody.”
He raised an eyebrow.
She smiled.
“I haven't shown the mailman.”
Marcus laughed.
“Please don't.”
His mother looked at the photograph again.
For a moment, her expression became emotional.
“Your father would have been so proud.”
Marcus lowered his fork.
The words always caught him.
His father had encouraged him to pursue public service, though he initially hoped Marcus would become an engineer.
But Marcus became interested in law enforcement after a high-school friend was wrongfully suspected of involvement in a neighborhood burglary.
The friend had been questioned aggressively before investigators discovered he was nowhere near the scene.
Marcus remembered how frightened he looked afterward.
He began studying criminal justice.
Then public administration.
He joined a police department in a neighboring metropolitan area, where he worked patrol, investigations, and later professional standards.
He earned a reputation for being demanding.
Not because he hated police officers.
Because he believed their authority required unusually careful judgment.
He pushed for better training.