Chapter 4

Deborah Vance was the branch manager, and she had a corner office with a window that looked out at the parking lot.

I put the folder on her desk and asked her to walk me through it slowly, like I was a client and not a problem.

She was decent about it. She told me the line of credit was opened fourteen months ago, drawn down in six draws, mostly to a contractor's supply house and a truck dealership over in Ridley. She told me it was secured by the Chestnut Street property. She told me four payments had been missed and the bank had sent the default notice by certified mail, and that the certified mail had come back signed.

"Signed by who?"

She turned the page. "Nora Bellamy."

I sat there a minute.

"What happens next," I said.

"Acceleration. Then, if it isn't cured, we'd have to look at the collateral."

The house. My grandmother's house, where my daughter's crib stood.

I asked for a copy of everything in the folder. I got it, stapled and stamped, and I walked out through the lobby past the teller windows. At the second window I stopped and asked the woman if she remembered a cash payment of four thousand dollars three days before.

She did. "Big guy in a canvas jacket," she said. "He counted it twice."

I drove home. Grant was parked across the street from my parents' house with the engine running.

He got out when he saw me. My father came onto the porch and stood with his hands on the rail, not saying anything, just standing.

"Nora." Grant's voice was reasonable. It was the voice he used with inspectors. "My dad is trying to help us."

I looked at him.

"He's buying the house to keep it in the family," Grant said. "He's already put down earnest money. If you back out now, he loses it, and he looks like a fool in front of the whole town."

"Then don't make him look like one," I said.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

I walked up the steps past my father and into the house.

That night Audrey left a voicemail. I played it three times.

"Nora, honey, it's me. We need to talk about Monday before it gets away from us. Call me."