Chapter 17: Quiet Enjoyment

Winnie's folding table had developed a landlord's respect for instability. One leg was shorter than the others. Every time Jo wrote on the butcher paper covering it, the tea in twelve paper cups leaned toward Mrs. Ng. "Again," Winnie said, and shoved a packet of gold paper under the bad leg until the table settled. Sau-lin examined it. "You have improved the property. Expect a rent increase." Three tenants laughed. Callum did not. He had spent the morning reading Declan's files and the afternoon learning that tenants kept detailed opinions about men who arrived with black toolbags. At the back of the room a man held up his phone. On the screen, a drowned woman rose out of a mirror in a room of screaming buyers, under the title Haunted Open House Lady. "Eleven thousand views," he said. Sau-lin tilted her head at herself. "The lighting is unkind." Winnie set…