Chapter 6: Nothing Until You Sign

The lawyer's office was above a hardware store on the east side, and the stairs smelled of paint.

Joel carried Maisie up them because I was still too weak to carry her and the diaper bag both.

She let him. She rode on his shoulder and held onto his beard with both fists.

"Sorry," I said.

"She can have it."

The lawyer was a gray-haired woman at a desk piled with files.

She had been Joel's friend since the Coast Guard, and she took her glasses off to look at me.

"You're the wife with the fever."

"I'm Leah."

"I'm the one who doesn't work for Ingrid Paulsen." She pointed at a chair.

"Tell me everything from the beginning, and don't skip the parts that make you look bad."

I told her.

I told her about the fever and the kitchen floor, and Maisie on the tablet, and the dot on Linden Court.

I told her about the deed, and the cards, and the three hundred dollars Tobin counted onto his desk.

She wrote without looking up. When I finished, she set down her pen.

"The hospital record helps you. Your sister's statement helps you. The ambulance call helps you the most, because Ingrid made it."

"She called to save me."

"She called because she needed you alive for Friday." The lawyer's mouth thinned.

"A mother who dies before the hearing is no good to her. A mother who is sick and alone is perfect."

My stomach turned.

"That's cold."

"That's Ingrid." She turned to Joel. "Does she know the wife is here?"

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