The Regulars

Four people walk into Saint Jude's Coffee on a Tuesday morning.

None of them are there for the coffee.

One carries a revolver wrapped in silk and a debt she didn't sign up for. One has a folded note from nine years ago and a gun he's loaded and unloaded twice. One found a school photograph under his door with four words on the back. One has a flower box, a dead brother's handwriting, and nothing left to lose.

Behind the counter, Lydia Karras watches them arrive one by one and understands, with...