“He told me never to give it to Arthur, no matter what sort of papers Arthur brought to the house.”

“Why did he name Arthur in particular?”

“Kade respected Arthur’s position,” Margaret said, wiping her fingers on a fresh tissue.

“He believed Arthur was looking out for the parish land.

But Kade kept copies of every check in that safe deposit box.”

I walked into the lobby of First National Bank at one thirty.

The high plaster ceiling held the smell of old ledger paper and floor wax, exactly as it had when I opened the church checking account twenty-three years earlier.

Arthur stood at the heavy oak teller desk by the vault door with a thick green ledger under his arm.