The Paper Trail novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: Open Door

I did not open it.

I held the envelope out to him with both hands.

"It's yours," I said.

"It's addressed to you."

"I know whose it is."

Lars took it the way he had taken the heels in the hotel bar, as if he were not sure it was alive.

He slid the single page out and unfolded it under the single work light at the edge of the stage.

His father's handwriting was small and square, in pencil.

Lars read it to himself, and then, in a voice that kept catching, he read it aloud.

"Miss Tennant.

"I read your report again tonight, the whole thing, front to back.

"You were right about every number. I took the money, and I'd rather you hear it from me than from a jury.

"My wife is gone, and I don't have much left in me.

"Don't let anyone talk you out of the work. Somebody has to count.

"If you ever meet my son, tell him to eat something, and tell him he's angry at the wrong person.

"R. Rhodes."

He lowered the page.

The ballroom was almost dark.

Nothing moved but a busboy, far away, folding a tablecloth.

"He wrote it six years ago," said Lars.

"And Judson sat on it for six years."

"He was saving it to hurt me with," I said.

"He never needed to. I stopped on my own."

Lars folded the letter along its old creases and put it in the breast pocket of his suit, over his heart.

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