I told her about the roadside, the ambulance, the folder, the glass room.

She listened with the coffeepot in her hand and didn’t wipe anything.

When I got to Eleanor standing up in the conference room, Marlene set the pot down.

“That woman in the navy coat,” she said.

“She came in here two weeks ago and ordered tea.

Left a twenty-dollar bill for a dollar seventy-five.”

“That sounds like her.”

Marlene brought the meatloaf.