“Trusting Frank’s paperwork is deadly.”

I took the check back from Grace and folded it once down the middle.

“What are you going to do with it now?” Grace asked me.

“I’m keeping it,” I said.

“Unsigned.”

I got up from the porch step and went back inside to my home office.

I opened the bottom left drawer of my desk, under the old tax receipts and the legal correspondence files.

I slid the uncashed check into the dark space behind the folder tabs and pushed the drawer closed until the latch clicked.