“That lines up with our preliminary figure.”

We went out to Margaret’s car and put my canvas bag in the trunk.

Brandon stayed on the front porch with the blue paper folder still unopened in his left hand, while Melissa stood behind the screen door talking excitedly into her phone.

We drove off Lakeview Drive at twenty past eleven and left the quiet suburban street behind.

By six that evening I was sitting in the dim living room of my seaside apartment, forty miles away.

Beyond the balcony glass the sky was dark, and the tide rolled steadily against the shore forty feet below.