“It’s a fraudulent instrument,” Douglas said.

“And the loan application is linked straight to an escrow account registered in Delaware.”

He shuffled his papers and slid a blue carbon copy ledger sheet out of the middle of the stack.

“The first payout was scheduled for nine o’clock Friday morning,” Douglas said.

“The bank needs two authorized signatures to release any amount over fifty thousand dollars.”

I looked down at the blue paper in front of me, the carbon ink blurring a little along the creases where Sadie had folded it into her winter boot.

“He tried to talk me into staying in Germany another week,” I said.