Chapter 52

“Trust me, Mabel. I know the woman. She’ll sign the papers even without the sob story.”

“Thank you, Leroy.”

When the call was over, Kevin looked at Grandma. “Perkins and Parkins,” he said, raising his eyebrows at her.

“Catchy, isn’t it,” Grandma said. “Those two boys are the same age. They went all the way through school together, and because so many teachers made their classes sit in alphabetical order, they were thrown together a lot. Naturally, they became best friends. Their wives are twin sisters—they even had a double wedding.”

“Mr. Cooper,” I said, “can it really be as easy as Mr. Perkins made it sound?”

“Very likely,” he said. “In small, closely knit towns, that’s the way things are done. With all the available blood kin signing off on it, who else would care?”

“I can think of half a dozen anti-gay religious groups that would,” I said.

“We’ll just have to keep this as low-key as possible. I rather imagine that Mr. Perkins understands the necessity for that.”