Signed On Monday

The letter was dated Monday.

Ivy read that part twice before she read anything else. Then she read the rest out loud, because Howard asked her to.

"Monday, September twenty-first. To the general manager of Summit Row Motorcars." Her voice wobbled and steadied. "I am buying the pearl-white convertible through Ivy Albright. My inquiry sat on your website for two days before anyone answered it. She answered it. Not once did she ask what I drove or what I did for a living. She asked what I wanted, and she got every detail right."

She stopped and pressed her lips together.

"Keep going," Howard said.

"Whatever your system shows on the day of delivery, the full credit for this sale and every dollar of its commission belong to her. If your store will not pay it, I will pay it to her myself, and my attorney has a copy of this letter so nobody has to take my word for it. Ronan Treadwell, Treadwell Truck and Auto, Odessa, Texas."

Nobody moved. Somewhere out on the boulevard a horn went off and stopped.

Howard held out his hand for the letter and read it himself. Then he reached across Ivy's desk and turned her monitor toward him. I watched him find the lines she had found: the wire at 9:12, the void at 1:47, Brent's login, Brent's name sitting where Ivy's used to be.

"He wrote that to set us up," Brent said. "That's exactly what a guy running a play would do."

"On Monday?" Howard did not raise his voice. "Three days before you voided anything?"

Brent opened his mouth. Nothing came.

"That's my number on the board, Howard," he tried.

"It was hers before you ever saw it," I said.

Brent looked at Howard. Howard took off his reading glasses, folded them, and said nothing. Garrett took one step back from Brent's side, then another, until he was standing by the turntable with nothing to do with his hands.

Ivy was crying without making a sound. Clem put one big hand on her shoulder.

Howard cleared his throat. "Miss Albright. Finish your delivery."

She wiped her face with the back of her wrist, opened her top drawer, and took out a slim pearl-white key fob on a plain steel ring. She held it out across the desk to me.

I closed my fingers around it. Then I turned around to face Clem.