A Twenty-Dollar Bill Dropped Into the Dust Beside a Tennessee Highway

“Did you find the names on the payout?” Dale asked me.

“Vance Miller and Pete Higgins,” I told him.

“Good Lord,” Dale said, wiping his greasy hands on his red shop rag.

“Those two haven’t worked a dock for us since ninety-eight.”

“She paid those two forty-one thousand dollars,” I said.

“Who did?” Dale asked.

“It was Tiffany,” I said.

“Why on earth would she hire Vance and Pete?” Dale asked.