Major Hannah Nolan Comes Home to Chesapeake and Discovers Nineteen Thousand Dollars Gone

It was a county pen, thin and blue, with a chewed-up cap.

“Judge Vance hates surprises,” Douglas said.

“We hand him the paper trail, not a story.”

First I read the line.

I, Major Hannah Nolan, swear under penalty of perjury that the facts stated herein are true.

My hands went flat on the counter.

Not out of fear.

Out of arithmetic.