The room was silent except for the steady rumble of the air conditioner under the windowsill.

I sat on the edge of the unmade bed and took my blue leather checkbook out of my green canvas duffel bag.

I opened the small plastic sleeve inside the back cover where I kept my paper records.

Next to the checkbook were the yellow legal pad pages I had written three nights earlier in my office.

I unfolded the blue bank receipt and smoothed out the sharp creases across my knees.

The transfer timestamps matched down to the minute.