Donna

A title agent who handles closings for half the law firms in the county and therefore knows everyone's business. She is the human router of the saga and, more usefully, the 'wash cycle': an awkward lead becomes, once Donna mentions it at a chamber breakfast, simply 'a referral from a friend.'

The narrator sends her a poinsettia every Christmas. The wash cycle must be maintained. That is infrastructure too.

Interesting details

• Knows everyone. Forgets nothing.
• The reason every lead arrives looking clean.