Chapter 11: The Ledger

Rainer Hallowell stood in my father's kitchen with his coat still on and read twenty-four cream slips of paper without a word.

He read them standing, one at a time, laying each face-up on the oilcloth as he finished.

My father sat at the head of the table with his arms folded.

Tiernan sat in his red camp chair and watched his brother's face.

I leaned against the sink.

When the last slip went down, Rainer put both palms flat on the table and stayed that way.

"Mr. Pascoe," he said. "May I borrow these?"

"For what?"

"To lay them next to the Trust's cash book."

"I don't want them out of the house."

"Then I'll bring the book here."

"You can't," Tiernan said. "It lives in the vault."

"Then Miss Pascoe will come to the vault with me, tonight, and the slips will stay in her pocket."

He looked up.

It was the first time his eyes had met mine since the roof.

"If you want."

I wanted.

Tiernan stood, looked at his brother and then at me, and picked up his folding chair.

"Go," he said. "I'll walk home."

He said it without any bitterness, which was almost worse.

The Trust vault was under the old customs house, down a stone stair that smelled of cold iron and damp paper.

Rainer unlocked it with a key from his watch chain.

Inside, floor to ceiling, were the green ledgers I had seen in his study, row on row.

He took one down without looking.

"This is the cash book," he said.

"Every dollar the Trust receives at the counter, entered on the day, and countersigned by a trustee."

"Every trustee?"

"Every month. I've signed it for eleven years."

He opened it on a steel table and ran a finger down a column.

I stood close enough to see.

Keep reading free with an account. Start My Secret Lover Is His Brother from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.