Kevin handed over the team's p-card to pay and signed the receipt with a neat scrawl. The card and receipt went into his wallet to file with Wymack later. The practice racquet he handed to Neil. Knowing what it cost made it feel a hundred times heavier in Neil's hands. Kevin nodded at the cashier's cheerful farewell and steered Neil toward the stairs.

They found Aaron and Nicky on the ground floor. Andrew was smoking on the curb outside. Neil brought his racquet into the backseat of the car with him, not wanting such an expensive thing crammed into the trunk. Andrew had either forgotten their argument upstairs or had his attitude reset again by his medicine, because he knotted his fingers through the strings of Neil's new racquet and gave a curious tug. He said nothing, but he didn't have to. Nicky peppered Kevin with a dozen questions about the racquet as he drove them away from Exites. Neil thought it genuine curiosity at first, but the growing edge to Nicky's words was all nerves.

It wasn't far to Nicky's old house. The Hemmicks lived in a two-storey home in the suburbs of southern Columbia. Neil peered past Andrew out the window as Nicky parked at the curb. From the outside, the house looked perfect. The lawn was vibrant green and neatly trimmed, the cars in the driveway were new and clean, and the house was a pale blue with dark shutters. It looked like an ordinary middle-class home, which made the cousins' reactions all the more surreal. Not even Andrew had anything to say when Nicky killed the engine.

Nicky drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. "Maybe this was a mistake."

"Oh, now he says it," Andrew said, and got out of the car. "Too late."

Neil put his racquet aside and got out, but Andrew reached past him and snagged the stick as soon as Neil was out of the way. Andrew gave it an experimental twirl, judging the weight of it, then propped it against his shoulder and started for the other cars.

Nicky got out of the car like it was on fire. "Andrew, what are you doing?"

"He's got a really shiny car for a minister," Andrew said. "I'm going to humble it."

Nicky ran after him and pulled the racquet from his hands. Andrew could have held onto it, but he was seemingly more amused by the terrified look on Nicky's face. He laughed at Nicky's obvious distress and made an exaggerated gesture for Nicky to lead the way. Nicky handed the racquet to Neil.