“What did he say to that?” I asked.

“He told me I had misunderstood him.

He said he’d come back with corrected documents.”

David set his glass down without drinking from it.

“Corrected by who?”

Carl wrote a figure on the pad and turned it my way.

Fifteen hundred dollars, for the title search at the recorder’s office and a quiet look into the parcel history.

“Up front,” he said.