“Show me the transfer history first,” Brenda said.

Her voice was flat and steady.

I flipped to the section holding twelve months of bank printouts.

Every single entry showed nine hundred forty dollars leaving my checking account on the twenty-seventh of the month.

Brenda ran her index finger down the column of numbers.

“These go back two full years.”

“Every month,” I said.

“I paid her mortgage straight to her credit union account so she’d never miss a due date.”