“Perfect,” Maja said. “What a day.”

When she got home from work, Ted was already there, watching a Yankees game on TV. She sat down next to him.

“The insurance adjuster finally came today,” she said.

“Great,” Ted said. “What did he say? How long will it take to get the payout?”

“I don’t know,” Maja said. “Because I wasn’t there. I was here, at work. He was supposed to come tomorrow.”

“Oh,” Ted said.

“This is really hard to manage from up here,” Maja said. What she thought, but didn’t add, was alone. “Every time I contact the DA’s office, all I get is a very polite secretary assuring me that I’ll be the first person they call when they have any news to share. But so far I haven’t heard a thing from them.” She paused. “I think I need to go down there. Just for a week. It would give me a chance to meet with the new contractor and put together a list of all the materials we’re going to need to replace. I can follow up with the police in person. And I’ll be there when the insurance adjuster shows up. I got him rescheduled, thankfully.”

“Sounds good,” Ted said, not looking away from the game.

Maja sighed. “Okay, then. I’m going to book a room at the inn for the week. Maybe you could come down on the weekend? We could go to the stone yard and pick out new countertops.”

Ted finally looked over at her. “You want to stay at the inn?” he asked.

“Well, yeah. I mean, I’m not going to camp out in the house.”

“Right,” Ted said. “But what about the gallery?”

“Louis isn’t going to be happy,” Maja said. “I’ll ask for the week off to get everything started. If I have some downtime while I’m there, I can start putting in the new appliance orders and looking at tile. Honestly, I’m not sure I ever loved the bathroom tile, and now that it’s being torn out, I’m thinking I might want to pick something different. What do you think?”

“I thought we were going to wait for the insurance payout,” Ted said.

“Well, sure, but we still have to spend the deductible before the insurance kicks in. And some of the appliances might take time to arrive. I think it’s better to get started now.”

Ted sighed. “Could you stay with Aneeta and Adil?” he asked her. “I hate the idea of you being down there alone.”

Maja thought it over. It was a lot to ask, but Aneeta probably wouldn’t mind. “Did you want to go with me to look at tile? I can wait until you’re down there.”

“Not really,” Ted said. “But do me a favor and don’t use the Visa for anything else until I have a chance to pay it off.”