ELEVEN
SANITIZING A HOME TOOK time. Tess hadn’t appreciated how much more it would take without her mother’s help.
She almost forgot about the weird metal thing she’d stashed in the kitchen drawer. Was it important or irrelevant? Given that someone had gone to the trouble of breaking in to steal her mom’s letters, it would be best to keep the metal object somewhere secret.
The base of her mom’s urn unscrewed, just like the lid. After wrapping the prongy thing in a bunch of duct tape to prevent rattling, she taped it into the urn base before screwing it back on. Job done.
By morning, the process was complete. The landlord had their security deposit. The place was sparkling clean, and she left a letter telling him to keep the deposit to cover her notice.
Closing up the house was difficu
