“The markets have been really jumpy, huh?” Maja asked, trotting out a Wall Street worry that she had heard repeatedly over the last few months, but only vaguely understood. As far as she could tell, the markets were always either up or down, and no matter what, everyone, or everyone they knew, still seemed to make money. She had a hard time buying into all of the anxiety that seemed to accompany these fluctuations.

Ted snorted. “Yeah, you could say that. Frothy, even. Dow’s still up, so that’s nice.” Ted seemed almost to be talking to himself. “Something’s going on, though. I can feel it. People at work look nervous.” He gave Maja a searching look, as if she might have an answer. But everything she knew about finance she knew from him, so her face was only a reflection of his own confusion. “Credit has been hard to come by,” he went on. “Home sales are down and foreclosures are up. I don’t know. Things seem too flat. Too calm. It’s what people aren’t saying that worries me.”

“Foreclosures? That’s funny, Aneeta was just talking to me last night about foreclosures. She said Adil’s bank had a few of them. I was surprised—I didn’t realize that J.P. Morgan was the kind of bank that held mortgages. But aren’t you in structured finance?” It was a term, like many related to Ted’s job, that she used without really understanding it. Derivatives, swaps, futures, options. Ted liked to explain these things to her in detail after a few glasses of wine, but the nuances always faded for her by the next morning.

At the mention of Aneeta’s name, Ted frowned. “Sure, but my products are tied into the real estate market. Aneeta mentioned foreclosures at J.P. Morgan? What exactly did she say?”

Maja was surprised. Ted almost seemed more interested in this than in anything she’d said about the house. “If you’re curious about it,” she said, “let’s see if they can meet up for dinner tonight.”

“Sounds good. So, what’s the game plan?” Ted asked. “I already told the office I’m out all day. Shall I hunt down whoever did this and give them a severe beating? Maybe burn their house down?”

“I wouldn’t mind seeing that,” Maja said.

“I’m only half-joking,” Ted replied.

“Let’s go over to the house first,” Maja said. “You have to see it to believe it. I had a message from the police last night—they have the initial report ready, so we can pick that up. Then I guess we start by filing the insurance claim.”

“Can we call John and have him meet us there?” Ted asked. “Maybe he can give us some more definite numbers.”