The dog sniffed at the blotter under her paws and then nosed Mrs. Dodd’s Swingline stapler, her stubby tail wagging.

“She’s darling,” Mrs. Dodd said. She scrunched up her nose and pulled the resisting dog towards her across the desk blotter. “Aren’t you a darling? Aren’t you a sweetheart?” The dog sniffed at her breath and then lunged in her direction, and Mrs. Dodd had to hold her back to keep her face from being licked. “She’ll be fine right here,” Mrs. Dodd said, rubbing the dog behind the ear. “She can help me answer the phones.”

Keegan nodded. Problem solved. “Anything come in?”

“Not a thing,” Mrs. Dodd said, still in her baby-talk voice, still seeming to address the terrier. “Nobody’s called all morning. Have they, pumpkin?” She looked up at Keegan then, and her voice fell to its natural register. “What about that thing yesterday?”

“Turned it down,” Keegan said. “He hasn’t called back, has he?”

“Like I said, no calls all morning,” Mrs. Dodd said. “You sure you’re ready to be back at the office? You don’t look so good.”

He opened his inner office door. “Haven’t been sleeping,” he said.

“Who can in this heat?”

THAT AFTERNOON, KEEGAN made some phone calls and went through the stack of mail he’d been ignoring. He called his mother’s lawyers again and phoned in a new order of business cards: Discreet, Affordable, Dependable, Efficient. (The initials wouldn’t spell out DEAD this time.) What with his abandoned career in journalism and his unlisted phone number, business cards were about the only place he saw his name in print these days. He called around to see how much a window AC unit would cost for the office. It was hard to get much done in this weather. The whole city, he felt sure, was slowing to a crawl under the brambly heat.

When the clock told him it was after five, it felt seemly to call it a day, despite how little he’d accomplished. There wasn’t much to do, it was true, but at least he was back at work. That counted for something. He closed the windows and was drawing the venetian blinds when Mrs. Dodd buzzed the intercom.

“There’s an Eve Ormsby-Cutler here to see you,” Mrs. Dodd announced. “Says you two are neighbors.”