Chapter 6: The Letter of Interest

The boardroom at Haverkamp Furniture has a table my grandfather built from a single walnut tree.

At nine on Tuesday morning, it held my mother, Landon Huddleston, and a man in a gray suit from Lakeshore Trust.

Roberta had come in a navy dress with her hair scraped back.

I came in last, with the folder under my arm.

"Kasey," my mother said without looking up. "You no longer have an office.

"You have a seat as a shareholder, and you may keep it quietly."

"I'd like to put an item on the record."

"There's no item."

I laid the engagement letter on the walnut in front of her and slid the wire confirmation beside it.

"Two hundred and forty thousand dollars," I said. "Wired from Haverkamp's operating account to Huddleston Partners on November seventh."

The man from the bank sat up.

"For services," my mother said. Her face did not change. "Consulting. A retainer for restructuring advice."

"Three weeks before he told one of your shareholders he had a rescue."

"I chose not to burden you."

"There's a note." I turned the letter over. "'K is not to see any of this until she's signed.'"

"That was meant kindly."

"Burn after reading," I said. "It's in your handwriting."

Silence.

The man from the bank looked at my mother, then at the paper, then at his own pen.

"Mrs. Haverkamp," he said quietly. "The bank would like to understand that payment."

Roberta's chair scraped.

"So would I," she said. Her voice shook, but it came out. "I'm a shareholder, and I'd like it put in the minutes."

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