Martha glanced over my shoulder at the empty lobby before she met my eyes through the glass.

“Dean said digging into the past would only hurt the girls.”

I stood in the cold draft from the front doors for a long minute before I walked back out to the street.

Sophie got to the house at one thirty with a black leather tote full of papers from the county courthouse.

She took out two yellow tax assessment sheets and spread them over the dining room table.

She tapped her phone screen to check the time, then tapped it again five seconds later.