Chapter 5: Walk-Through

The buyer's agent met me on the front walk at ten on Thursday morning with a tablet and a lockbox code.

My own realtor stood beside her, and Bev stood beside me.

"The buyer is entitled to a final look at the house," my realtor said quietly. "And you're entitled to be in it. It's still your name on the deed."

"The locks were changed."

"Then we'll knock, and we'll be very polite about it."

She rang the bell.

Rosalind answered, already dressed in a navy skirt and her pearls.

She saw the two strangers with the tablet, and her face rearranged itself into a hostess's.

"Is something wrong?"

"Final walk-through for the closing," the buyer's agent said brightly. "Dr. Ainsley's office confirmed it for this morning."

"Nobody told me."

"The notice was posted to the owner and the occupants," my realtor said. "Last night, by email. To Dr. Ainsley."

Rosalind looked at me.

I did not say anything.

"You may come in," she said at last. "But please do not disturb my things."

We went through the house room by room.

The buyer's agent measured the kitchen and photographed the furnace.

Bev opened the hall closet, and the shelf where the blue box had been was bare.

I stood in the hallway and looked at it.

Rosalind watched me from the end of the hall with her hands folded.

"Where are they?" I said, quietly.

"I told you. Curtis put them somewhere safe."

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