“He signed for it.”

The clerk printed four certified copies of the birth certificates on heavy parchment paper and pressed a raised silver seal into the bottom corner of each one.

“Does his mother know he got these?” Sam asked.

“I don’t know what lie he told his parents back then,” I said.

“We’ll find out on Christmas Eve.”

“She looked happy in that newspaper photo from the Denver foundation ball,” Sam said.

“Pictures don’t tell us what story she was told,” I said.