Chapter 21: The Closing

The closing was set for ten o'clock Wednesday morning, in a glass conference room on the fourteenth floor in downtown Lexington.

We got there at five to.

The trooper walked in first, in uniform, with his hat under his arm.

Jude came next, then my lawyer in a dry raincoat, and then me, in my mother's crown, because I had decided I would wear it.

The room held a dozen people around a long table.

There were the developer's partners in expensive jackets, and their wives.

A few guests had come to see the signing and be photographed afterward.

A caterer was setting out coffee.

At the head of the table sat Renata, in cream, with her pen uncapped.

The small man in the navy suit sat at her left with the folio open and the papers laid out in a fan.

She looked up when we came through the door.

The smile that came was thin, but it was real.

"Calla," she said.

"How enterprising.

"Everyone, this is my stepdaughter, who has had a difficult week."

"Mrs. Redmond," the trooper said, "I told you there would be a warrant."

"And I told you I'd be at the closing.

"A woman can't be arrested before breakfast, can she?"

"It's ten o'clock," my lawyer said.

"Breakfast is over."

One of the partners laughed and stopped himself.

My lawyer set a thick folder on the table in front of the developer, a gray-haired man with a sunburn.

"I represent the Redmond estate," she said.

"This is the trust instrument for the land you are about to buy.

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