Arthur set the tape gun down on the hall table and left it there, and the rental backed out of the driveway and headed up Birwood Lane with both of them staring straight ahead.

By six I was sitting in Clare’s office with the closing papers in front of me.

She clicked her pen twice, then shook it.

“That’s the third one this month,” she said, and took a fresh one from the cup bearing the crest of her old unit.

“Read the last page before you sign it.

That isn’t a courtesy, that’s how I get to sleep at night.”

The deed was one page, stamped in blue at the register of deeds.