OLIVER

I found Pierce pacing in the kitchen an hour after he returned from closing on the bed-and-breakfast. The plan had been to come over earlier, but I wanted to give him and Mari appropriate time to discuss their final agreement. We needed to decide when it was good for us to skip town. Mari hadn’t given me many details, but she sent a cryptic text about what she saw in a certain hallway of the title company.

"Is Mari here?" I asked as he finished up a circle ...