Page 119 of Silent Bones

“I don’t care anymore,” Dale said, but Noah could see doubt creeping into his expression.

"No, that's the point," Noah pressed. "You're so focused on punishing these kids that you're letting the real culprits walk away. You think killing Avery here is going to change anything?"

Dale's grip on Avery loosened slightly. "What would you have done?"

Noah thought of his brother Luke, of all the corruption he'd witnessed in his own career, of the moments when he'd been tempted to take justice into his own hands.

"I'd have kept fighting," he said. "Found another way to get the truth out. Made so much noise they couldn't ignore it anymore."

"I tried that for a year. I tried to get these teens to tell the truth, I spoke with their parents but they wouldn’t listen. I raised a stink, but they said I couldn’t prove it. The case would be tossed out. They never even tried," Dale said. "Nobody listened."

"Then you make them listen differently. Don't become the monster they're trying to paint you as."

“I already am.”

Noah was close enough now to see the tears tracking down Dale's cheeks, the way his whole body trembled with suppressed grief and rage.

"Look at her, Dale," Noah said softly. "Really look at her. She's eighteen years old. Same age you were when you first climbed up here full of dreams about protecting people. She’s scared."

"She's a killer," Dale replied, but his voice lacked conviction.

"She's a kid who made a terrible mistake. Just like you were a kid once, standing in this exact spot, believing you could make the world better."

Avery made a muffled sound behind the tape, and Dale looked down at her for the first time as something other than an object of revenge. Noah saw the moment when Dale's perceptionshifted, when he saw not the architect of his destruction but a terrified teenager who wanted to live.

"They destroyed everything I loved," Dale whispered. "My career, my reputation, my family, my faith in the system. Everything."

"I know," Noah said. "But destroying her won't bring any of that back. It'll just create more destruction, more pain for more families."

Dale's grip on Avery loosened further. "Then what's the point? What was any of this for?"

"The truth," Noah said. "You've exposed the truth about Wallface. People will know what really happened now. That family will get the recognition they deserved. That has to count for something."

“But I’ll go to prison for the rest of my life.”

“Maybe, or…”

“No. No maybes. You’re just trying to get in my head.”

“I’m not. I’m trying to…”

“Shut up!”

For a long moment, the only sounds were the wind through the tower and the distant helicopter rotors. Dale stood at the edge of the platform, holding a girl who represented everything he'd lost, staring out over the wilderness he'd once sworn to protect.

"I can't go back," he said finally. "I can't undo what I've done."

"No," Noah agreed. "But you can choose what happens next."

Dale's eyesswept across the vast wilderness spread out below them, the endless carpet of green that had once representedeverything pure and worth protecting in his world. The late afternoon sun cast long shadows between the peaks, painting the landscape in shades of gold and amber that reminded him of those long-ago days when he'd sat in this very spot as a teenager, believing he could guard it all forever.

"I used to think I could protect all of this," he said, his voice barely audible above the wind. "Every tree, every stream, every creature that called it home."

Noah took another careful step closer, now within arm's reach of both Dale and Avery. "You did protect it. For twenty-three years, you kept these forests safe."

"And what did it get me?" Dale's laugh was bitter. "A forced retirement and a pension they stole when they decided I was a problem."

"It got you the respect of everyone who knew what kind of ranger you were," Noah said. "Before Wallface, your record was spotless. You were exactly the kind of protector these places needed."