Family drama!
That was when Mr. Carver started shouting. He was a big guy, who always looked like he was about to start sweating, and he had one of those bushy beards to make up for the hair he was losing above. He was a bully, too. A grown-up bully, who knew what he wanted and was going to goddamn well get it whether you liked it, or not.
In his defense, what he wanted right now was his kid back. And everybody wanted to help with that, within limits. Sheriff Wiley ran interference for the fire department, for a while. But some people just can’t take ‘You’re in over your head and you don’t even know it’ for an answer. Eventually the sheriff gave up. “You want your fucking kid back?” he snapped, loud enough to make Mrs. Carter jump.
(I know you’re probably imagining her as some kind of shrinking violet, but she wasn’t. She was real tall for a woman, with grey-streaked black hair — and hard eyes. She had the kind of eyes that come attached to people who can get real obsessed with the Place. She was worried about Andy, too, but more in control of it.)