But she can lay the record in front of his wife, and tap it twice, and let the wife read what is there.

“You asked me to check the sale record,” she said, and pushed one page toward me.

I took the photocopy from my purse and laid it beside the original.

I straightened both edges before I let myself read — a habit of mine, Noah teases me for it, lining up the corners of a thing before I can look at it — and then I read the legal description.

The parcel number matched.