“I’ll see you in court, Vivian,” he called out over his shoulder. “If you can afford the gas to get there.”

The door of his car closed with a heavy thud.

He drove away, leaving Diane and me standing in the dark, empty lot.

I looked down at the blacked-out paper in my hand.

“Diane,” I said.

She walked up beside me, her coat soaked.

“We still have one card to play,” she said.

She looked down at the ruined document.

“But we have to find the notary who stamped this twelve years ago.”

My phone buzzed again.

It was a new message from the same unsaved number.

*I have the notary’s ledger. Meet me at the office in twenty minutes. – C.*

I stared at the screen, the rain dripping off my chin.

I looked at Diane.

“Caleb has it,” I said.

“Then let’s go,” she said.

We got back into the sedan and sped toward the office.

The clock on the dashboard read twelve-fifteen.

Seven hours and forty-five minutes left.

When we arrived at Diane’s office building, the glass front door was unlocked.