I had turned down Arthur Vance’s suggestion to pursue criminal charges over the forged loan applications.

“The bank got its four million dollars back through the flood plain land liquidation,” I told Arthur.

“We don’t need to drag Walter’s name through a county courtroom.”

I took a sip of the hot coffee and watched a pair of mallards skim low over the water.

The irrevocable trust terms were locked inside Walter’s steel filing cabinet in the main study.

Under those terms, Victoria received a monthly housing stipend of twelve hundred dollars, paid straight to her landlord on the first of every month.