She saw me the next morning at her office downtown.

She examined the notebook carefully and compared it with a copy of the contracts she kept in her files.

The account numbers and dates matched.

The signature attributed to Walter did not.

“This justifies requesting an investigation,” she explained, “but by itself it doesn’t prove who forged the signature or who caused your father’s death.”

She asked me not to alter the files or hand the original to anyone.

She had seen important cases collapse because papers changed hands without a record.