Clara found a forged receipt for forty thousand dollars

to her?” Gary asked.

“No,” I said. “She said he didn’t look back once.”

Gary tucked a strand of dark hair behind his ear, his face calm in the morning light.

The gray gravel under my shoes shifted as I walked over to the potting table, touching the edge of the blue ledger that I had placed there earlier.

The ledger was dry now, its yellowed pages safe continue reading …