The senior supervisor dropped his paper coffee cup into a metal drum.

He waved to the other three men, and they walked toward their pickup trucks without looking at Nathaniel.

Nathaniel stood alone in his empty lumber yard as his site foremen walked away without saying a word to him.

The lock on the second-floor office door gave way with a firm click at eight in the morning.

Nathaniel stepped into the quiet room above the Strasburg bank, where the air smelled of old paper and brass polish.

Brenda set her black clipboard on the oak desk and pulled open two deep metal filing drawers.