I carried the binder over to the long oak sorting table, laid it flat, and undid the two brass latches on the side.

The heavy pages turned with a soft rustle as I flipped back through nine months of records.

Near the back of the third section, clipped between two equipment freight bills, was a single yellow sheet.

It was payroll authorization form forty-two, flagged for a manual wire transfer in the amount of forty-one thousand two hundred dollars.

At the bottom of the sheet, in the box set aside for executive approval, were two dark ink marks.

They were my own initials, R.C., written in dark blue ballpoint with a slanted double loop on the R.