“Then bring me a cashier’s check and quit riding the bus to Fort Jackson.” Clare pulled her coat on.

“I’d give you a ride home, but my van has two car seats in the back and a coffee stain shaped like Ohio.”

“I’ll walk.

It’s only four blocks.”

“Lock it behind you,” she said.

“For a different reason than before.”

I let myself in at the curb and stood on the porch for a while with the envelope holding the deed under my arm and the brass key in my hand.

The porch boards hadn’t been swept in nine days.