Samuel Reed Kept an Old Wooden Bat Behind the Pantry Door for Twenty Years

“If a courier comes to this house, don’t sign for anything from Daniel.

Call me first.”

Claire stopped writing.

“Why would he send a courier?”

“Men like him like paper,” Evelyn said.

“Paper feels civilized.”

She packed up the folder and left with a hand on Claire’s shoulder.

I walked her to the porch, where a gray unmarked delivery van had turned around at the gate and gone back down the lane.