They were holding green rectangles with dollar signs on them.

“Nolan told me Daniel comes to the house when you aren’t there,” Mrs. Latham said.

“He said Daniel brings boxes of green paper to the office.”

I stared at the drawings, my breath catching in my throat.

Daniel was Grant’s primary business partner in his real estate ventures.

I knew Daniel handled the cash rentals, but Grant always claimed those accounts were dry.

The third drawing showed a calendar with dates circled in red.

“He wrote these dates down,” Mrs. Latham said, pointing to the back of the paper.

I turned it over.

In Nolan’s neat print, there were dates from last month.

Beside them, he had written: “Daniel put the cash in the wall.”

My phone suddenly buzzed in my pocket, the vibration loud in the quiet classroom.

I pulled it out and looked at the screen.

It was a text from an unknown number.

I tapped the message.

It was a photo of my apartment door, taken from the hallway outside.

Underneath the photo was a single line of text: *Tell the boy to keep his mouth shut.*