She’d never notified the DMV of a change of address, I figured. It occurred to me that maybe she didn’t come from a home where a high priority was placed on attending to such details.

“Whaddya say your name was?”

“Walker,” I said. “Zack Walker.”

“You look a bit old for Stef.”

Well, I thought, not necessarily. Just how old did she think I looked? I mean, surely it was not unheard-of for some men in their early forties to attract a woman who appeared to be in her mid- to late twenties. Maybe I didn’t work out a lot, and perhaps I could stand to lose a few pounds, but—

Shut up, I told myself.

“We’re not, you know, going out or anything,” I said. “I just needed to give her something. Maybe I could leave it with you.”

“I dunno. Like I said, she don’t live here, and she does drop by occasionally but I don’t know when. She’s so busy, you know, buying her fancy clothes and working for her fancy boss. Hasn’t got time to come by here, unless she needs some money, of course. And I’m betting she’s making enough that she could pay me back some, because I’ve got my own expenses, raising her little brother here on my own after Victor left us high and dry, don’t you know.”

That’s when I decided I couldn’t leave the purse here. I didn’t know the history between this woman and her daughter, but it was a safe bet that as soon as I handed that purse over, this woman was going to take whatever cash was in it, and I didn’t want that to be my fault.

I said, “You know, I’ll probably be running into her again soon, so I won’t bother you with this.”

“You work with Stef? You one of those realtor people?”

“Realtor? No. Where does Stef work?”

“Over at one of them new developments. In the office. Forest Estates it’s called.”

“Valley Forest Estates?”

“I think.”

And then I remembered. The receptionist who didn’t want me to see Greenway. Small frickin’ world.

“Well then, I’ll just pop into the sales office,” I said. “It’s not far from where I live. You see, we were in the checkout line at Mindy’s, and she was going through her wallet and I didn’t notice until she was gone that she had dropped her driver’s license, so I grabbed it, and this was the address that was on it, which was why I just dropped by here, you know, to give it back to her.”

Stefanie Knight’s mother looked at me, then at the shoe bag I was carrying. Was it big enough to carry an entire driver’s license?