Lorna turned her head slowly to look at Vanessa.

“Is that true, Vanessa?” Lorna asked, her voice quiet.

Vanessa did not answer; she looked directly at Grant.

“And the secondary authorized signatory on the Hartline corporate bank account,” Marcus added, “is Grant Caldwell.”

Arthur Bell took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes.

“The total amount transferred to Hartline is eighty-four thousand dollars,” Arthur said, reading from the ledger sheet.

“There is a perfectly reasonable explanation for this,” Grant said, his voice rising a pitch.

He stepped away from the whiteboard, his hands gesturing toward the board members.

“Hartline is a standard marketing vendor we brought on to handle our regional digital transition,” Grant said.

I watched him sweat under the bright lights of the boardroom.

I reached into my coat pocket and felt the crisp edge of the envelope containing my mother’s final letter.

“It was a competitive bidding process,” Grant added, his voice tightening as he looked at Arthur. “We have the RFPs in the digital archive.”

Vanessa nodded quickly, her fingers twisting her glass of water. “Yes, we reviewed three other agencies,” Vanessa said. “Hartline offered the most comprehensive package for the price.”