She swallowed hard, her mouth closing into a thin line.

“Is the lease downstairs?” she asked.

“Mr.

Vance has it on his clipboard,” I said.

By four o’clock, dark clouds had gathered over the pines at the edge of the property.

Arthur Vance stood beside the hood of his sedan in the brick driveway, his leather binder resting flat on the cold metal.

He held the final closed estate file in his hand.

“The bank has formally dropped its lien action against Sterling Construction,” Vance said, handing me a blue-stamped legal release.