Chapter 22: The Heart Fund

The records room of the Little Hearts Fund was in the basement of its headquarters, behind a steel door with a brass lock.

Kaitlyn put the key in the lock with both hands.

It turned on the first try.

Behind her stood Mr. Winslow, the Fund's directors and me.

The woman in the lavender hat who had walked out of the gala had come back that morning.

The lights buzzed on over rows of grey cabinets.

At the back, under a single hanging lamp, stood a plain wooden desk.

On it sat a ledger with a black cover, and a shoebox tied with a white ribbon.

Kaitlyn went to the ledger first.

She turned to a page marked with a bent paper clip, and her mouth went tight.

"One million, one hundred thousand," she read.

"Paid to a law firm, eleven years ago, in the first week of March.

It's coded as a program expense.

It says, Medical outreach."

"That's the firm that sued Hannah," said Mr. Winslow.

"It is," said the woman in the lavender hat.

She had gone very pale.

"Children's hearts," she said.

"We sold tables at the gala for that money.

We sold ten thousand dollar plates."

I took the shoebox.

The ribbon came loose when I touched it.

Inside lay a stack of receipts held with a rubber band.

Every one was from a florist.

White roses, long stem, one dozen.

They went back twenty-three years, one a year, each paid in cash and each filed under a single code.

The code was Memorial: Baby W.

"She paid for the flowers out of her own purse," Kaitlyn said slowly.

"Look.

Every receipt is hers.

She never touched the Fund for those."

"But she touched it for the lawsuit," I said.

"Yes."

The woman in the lavender hat sat down on a filing cabinet.

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