“The county auditor was acting on the trust assignment,” I said.

I unlatched my briefcase once more, reached in, and drew out Kade’s original handwritten 1979 confession.

I walked past the podium to the speaker’s table on the right side of the altar platform and laid the paper flat on the white lace tablecloth.

Wade came up next to me, opened his blue folder, and set out four accounting printouts in a tidy row.

“In July 1979,” Wade said, adjusting his silver-framed glasses, “ninety-two thousand dollars was taken out of the church seminary fund.”