The Paper Trail novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: The Courtroom

I drove to the plant with both hands clamped on the wheel.

It was a long white building behind a field of snow, with a steel silo at each end and a sign that said Rhodes Dairy.

Rhodes Dairy.

I had read that name on a cover page nine years ago, in a courtroom in Waukesha.

I had been twenty-five.

It had been my first case as lead.

I sat in the parking lot with the engine running and let it come back.

A cooperative of forty small farms.

A treasurer named Ray Rhodes, who kept the books in a green cardboard box.

A shortfall of two million dollars that nobody could explain, until I had.

I had testified for three days.

A young man had sat in the second row behind the defense table with his hands between his knees and never taken his eyes off me.

I had not known his name then.

I knew it now.

I found Lars in the loading bay, in a hairnet and rubber boots, checking a pallet against a clipboard.

He saw my face and set the clipboard down very carefully on a crate.

"Come outside," he said.

We stood in the cold behind the building, where the delivery trucks turned around.

His breath made a cloud between us.

"Judson said to ask you about Rhodes Dairy," I said.

He closed his eyes.

"Yes," he said.

"Tell me."

He took a long breath.

"My father was Ray Rhodes," he said. "He ran the books for forty families, for twenty years. You sat in a witness chair in Waukesha and showed a jury where the money went."

"I remember."

"I was twenty-six. I sat behind him and watched you do it."

"I remember you."

His eyes opened.

"You do?"

"Second row," I said. "Brown jacket. You never looked away."

← Chapter 8 · All chapters · Chapter 10 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend