Max Devore and Lance

Max Devore and Lance are father and son, but the supplied scenes illuminate their relationship chiefly through Max’s conduct after Lance’s death. Max invokes his connection to his son to claim authority over Lance’s surviving family, making the father-son bond a source of leverage in the struggle over Kyra’s future.

Family Claim After Lance’s Death

Max tells Mike Noonan that Lance had been kept in Mattie’s trailer and speaks of Mattie and Kyra in contemptuous terms. He then says he will take over the matters he believes need handling, directly connecting his proposed intervention to his status as Lance’s father. The exchange shows Max treating Lance’s death not as a limit on his involvement but as a reason to assert control over the family Lance left behind.

Max’s claim is sharply at odds with the independent position Mattie takes in the custody dispute. She hires a lawyer after George Footman frightens her, and Mike explains that Max may bring extensive legal representation and sympathetic witnesses against her. The conflict thus concerns more than the private history between father and son: Max’s paternal connection becomes part of a broader effort to determine who will control Lance’s daughter.

Lance’s Death and the Custody Case

The court appoints Elmer Durgin as guardian ad litem for Kyra Elizabeth Devore and subpoenas Mike to give a deposition about her well-being. John Storrow explains that a guardian ad litem is meant to protect the child’s interests, but that judges commonly follow the appointee’s recommendation. That process gives Max’s family claim a formal legal setting, while also making the child’s welfare the stated focus of the case.

Storrow warns that Max can marshal lawyers and supportive testimony while Mattie may lack comparable resources. Mike also tells Mattie that the court is not obliged to provide her with equivalent support. The imbalance makes Max’s position consequential even when it is advanced through institutions rather than through a direct confrontation with Mattie.

Wealth and Pressure

Max’s influence extends beyond the courtroom. After Mattie loses her job at the Four Lakes Consolidated Library, Mike suspects that the library’s reliance on Max’s support gave him leverage over Lindy Briggs. Mattie recalls that Storrow had predicted Max would try to leave her unemployed before the custody hearing, so the loss of her work appears to her as part of the pressure surrounding the case, not an isolated setback.

Max’s reach also shapes the precautions Mattie and Mike take in communicating. Storrow warns them that their telephone lines may be tapped and tells them not to meet at Mattie’s trailer; they are to use public places instead. The directions convey how thoroughly the custody struggle has intruded into their ordinary routines.

Meaning of the Relationship

The evidence does not provide a sustained account of Lance and Max’s relationship during Lance’s life. Instead, it shows the relationship through Max’s claims after Lance’s death: he invokes his son as justification for intervening, while Lance’s surviving family faces the consequences of that intervention. The father-son tie therefore operates less as a remembered intimacy than as the basis for Max’s attempted authority over Kyra and the people caring for her.