The state process server handed Arthur two yellow carbon sheets before the elevator doors could slide shut.

By two o’clock that Friday afternoon, the labor board order had lifted the freeze on Whitmore Construction’s accounts and seized Arthur Vance’s operating funds.

In the second-floor executive office at the Bank of Lancaster, the desk clock ticked past the half hour while the manager laid two official cashier’s checks on the polished desk.

“Eighteen hundred dollars for withheld wages, and four hundred for your residential security deposit,” the bank manager told Martha.

Martha touched the edge of the blue paper checks with her index finger, checking the printed figures twice before she looked across the desk.