Chapter 10: Custody of R.

I did not go back to the house until nightfall, and by then I knew exactly what I was going to do with it.

Nolan drove me up the bluff in silence.

I had not shown him the receipt, and he had not asked.

At the gate, he stopped the car and turned to me.

"Whatever is on that paper," he said, "it changes the contract."

"It changes everything."

"Then I'll be at the foot of the stairs," he said. "If anyone comes up, I'll cough."

"You've never coughed in your life."

"I'll learn."

I almost smiled.

The house was dark except for the kitchen lights and the glow under my mother's door.

I took the back stairs in my socks with my phone in my fist and the sketch in my pocket.

The family wing was empty.

I stopped at the oak door at the end of the hall and put my ear against it.

Nothing.

The keypad on the wall had six buttons, and the paint around them was worn.

A man who opened his safe that often used a number he could not forget.

I tried his wedding date and got a red light.

I tried Clem's birthday and got a red light.

I tried the day I was born, which I had read on the lab report, and the lock clicked.

It was the one thing in that house that had stayed true.

I put the back of my hand against my mouth for a moment, and then I went in.

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