At nine, the coat and I attended Posthumous Property Resolution. Its visitor badge opened the gate. Mine produced a red light and EXPIRED, so I carried the bereavement sleeve inside and remained standing.
Halden Reeve had placed two chairs before his desk. He asked me to put the coat in the one marked REPRESENTATIVE. The other required current credentials. After checking mine, he removed it.
Reeve aligned the sleeve with the seat before opening the estate file. He apologised to the coat for the delay, then asked me not to answer until my relationship to it had been classified.
He directed each formal question to the badge pinned through the sleeve. My replies were recorded as unsolicited assistance. Property Resolution heard the credential attached to the claim before the body presenting it.
The appointment had not come from the laundry. Reeve traced six linked forms to a Garment Continuity claim filed against the coat, describing it as an active workplace record with a surviving financial duty.
The duty was not storage. An attached schedule listed small, regular pension contributions. Reeve read it twice and stopped apologising.
He gave me a certified copy. Before the coat can be released, I must identify the contributors and explain why their payments were assigned to its record. I am to return with the answer tomorrow. The coat kept the chair.
An official Sanctuary Serial