“Thank you, Howard,” I said.

He touched the brim of his hat to Eleanor, took a red peppermint stick from the glass jar, and handed it to Emma before he walked out the door.

Brenda Potts had called from Oak Creek Bank twenty minutes earlier to tell us the same thing.

The forty-thousand-dollar wire transfer forms had been shredded in the back office.

The deed to the market building was back in my safe, cleared of all legal liens.

Emma stood up from the floor, holding two small blue packets of instant oatmeal.