Chapter 9: Five Thousand Dollars

Near midnight I went down to the family lounge for coffee, and Lacey Reichert was waiting there.

She sat on the vinyl sofa with her camel coat folded over her knees.

Her purse sat on her lap, and she held it.

Twelve people were in that room.

Two were night-shift nurses on break, and the rest were families sleeping in chairs under the buzzing lights.

Lacey smiled.

"Nina. Sit."

"I'll stand."

"You'll want to sit for this."

She opened her purse and took out a checkbook with a leather cover.

She wrote slowly, with a gold pen, and tore the page out along the perforation with a small ripping sound.

She held it out between two long red nails.

"Five thousand dollars," she said, loud enough for the whole room. "That's more than you make in a month at that emergency room, I'd guess."

"What's it for?"

"For you to be on a bus back to Denver tomorrow morning, before Basket Night."

A young mother in the corner opened her eyes and sat up.

"You've seen how this goes," Lacey said.

"Caleb's a sweet boy who has been in trouble all his life."

"He'll make a scene in that church on Thursday, and you'll be standing right next to him."

"My name's already on it. It's Reichert."

"That can be fixed."

She waved the check gently.

"You're a good nurse, and you saved Hazel. You deserve a good life. Not a thief's."

"Let me see it."

Lacey's smile widened as I took the check.

It was real, on the Reichert Hardware business account, signed in her loopy hand.

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