Three Green Notebooks Left in a Cedar Chest on Elm Street

did not look at the ledger. He looked past my shoulder toward the window, where three crows were circling over the cornfield behind his barn.

“Some books are better left closed,” he said. “But the planning commission will want to see the dates.”

I carried the ledger in my canvas tote bag to the Oakhaven Diner at half past eleven. The damp smell of wet continue reading …