“I want you to prove the transaction to yourself.” She didn’t answer.

She said she had to finish lunch, and the call ended, and I stood at the counter and noticed that the date Chad had written on one page was three days later than the date on the transfer document itself.

A small thing.

It bothered me enough that I put both papers into the blue folder.

Chapter 9 — Old Enough to Decide

At 5:30 my parents had iced tea on the dining room table — three glasses already sweating rings into the wood — and my father, Vernon, was cleaning his glasses with the corner of a napkin, which is the thing he does instead of saying the first thing that comes to him.