Inside the house, the living room was completely bare except for two empty cardboard boxes by the window.

The walls looked bigger without the new furniture, showing off the original dark oak baseboards my grandfather had put in thirty years ago.

At five o’clock I walked down the hall to the doorway of the master bedroom.

Evelyn stood next to the stripped mattress, carefully folding a flowered blouse into an open leather suitcase.

Her pearl necklace hung loose at her collar, and she fiddled with the clasp twice without looking up.

“Richard left for his brother’s place in Canton an hour ago,” Evelyn said, her voice hardly louder than a whisper.