“It will be twenty dollars for the official photocopy,” Walter whispered, his eyes shifting to the corridor door. “The fee is standard, but I have to log the transaction under a general research code.”
I peeled a twenty-dollar bill from my purse and slid it across the smooth laminate, the paper crisp between us.
He slipped the bill into his shirt pocket and handed me a single sheet of paper, the ink faded to a dull charcoal gray.
“Who owned it back then, Walter?” I asked, looking at the block of legal descriptions.
“Some folders are best left in the drawer, Margaret,” Walter said, his voice barely audible as he clutched his clipboard to his chest.
He turned his back to me and began sorting a stack of tax receipts, his shoulders hunched against any further questions.
Evelyn’s front porch was screened from the road by a row of yellowing maple trees that dropped their leaves with every small breeze. She sat in her wicker rocker, a large basket of calico patches resting near her orthotic shoes.
She was sewing a quilt, her needle moving through the heavy batting with the steady precision she had used for thirty years at the high school desk.
“You should have seen the way Walter looked when he handed it over,” I said, sitting on the top step. “He was shaking.”
Evelyn stopped her needle and took off her wire-rimmed reading glasses, polishing them with the hem of her blue cardigan. “The people in that courthouse have survived three administrations by knowing when to look at the ceiling, Margaret. They don’t like anyone looking at the floor.”
“The deed lists a holding company,” I said. “But the mailing address was a post office box registered in the next county.”
Evelyn replaced her glasses, her eyes clear and sharp behind the lenses as she squinted at a patch of red cloth. “That was the year they closed the old municipal landfill, too. There were several properties that went through those shadow accounts.”
She reached into her sewing basket and pulled out a small, translucent object, holding it up so the afternoon light caught the plastic.
