Chapter 11: The Signature

The deputy kept his eyes politely on my face.

I was wearing a man's flannel shirt, and the man was standing on the stairs behind me.

"Audra Dunning?"

"Yes."

"I'm required to hand this to whoever lives at the property."

He gave me the envelope and went back down the lane with his hat pulled low.

I read it standing in the doorway with Jed's shirt hanging to my knees.

NOTICE OF APPLICATION FOR TAX DEED.

The words under the heading were dull and flat.

The holder of the county's tax certificate on this parcel had applied for a deed.

Unless the delinquent taxes were paid in full by the twenty-first of November, the property would be transferred.

The amount was a number I had to read twice.

It was more than a hundred and eighty thousand dollars.

Where the name of the certificate holder should have been, the notice said only: on file with the county clerk.

Jed read it over my shoulder.

His breath was warm on my ear.

His hand settled on my back, and neither of us pretended it was an accident.

"Six years," he said. "Plus penalties."

"He told me he paid every one."

"Audra."

"I know."

I folded the paper along its creases.

"I'm going to Buffalo."

The lawyer's office sat over a hardware store on Main Street, with a view of the snowy hills.

She was a small, brisk woman in her fifties.

She had handed me a cup of tea before I could tell her what I wanted.

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