A grandson meant the estate had somewhere to go that wasn’t lawyers and charities and the slow dissolution of everything her husband had built.

So Odette whispered, and Rosalind listened, and the whispering was always the same tune in different words: secure his future.

Sign it to the boy.

Do it now, while you can.

It was a good plan.

It was nearly a perfect plan.

It had exactly one flaw, and the flaw walked up the cobblestone steps on a rainy Tuesday in a grease-stained jacket.

Chapter 5 — The Man on the Porch