Chapter 10: The Ledger

Birdie's kitchen light was on at midnight, and so was the kettle.

She had a folded bank page spread flat on her table under a sugar bowl.

"Eighteen years ago, the club filed an insurance claim for the pool house fire," she said. "It paid out two hundred and ten thousand dollars."

I read the page twice.

It was a bank statement on club letterhead, with one line circled in pencil.

DEPOSIT: Cardinal Ridge Repairs Account. $210,000.00.

Under it, someone had added a column of withdrawals in a different ink.

Small ones.

Five thousand here, eight thousand there, spread over years, and every one signed V.L.

"The pool house was never rebuilt," I said.

"Nope. Still boarded up."

"So where did the money go?"

"I think I know. But I need the real ledger to prove it, and Stanford just took the safe key off Ramsay."

"Then it's gone."

"Probably."

I turned the bank page over and read the penciled column again.

There were forty-one withdrawals, and beside each one Birdie had written what she remembered from those years.

A boat slip in Charleston.

Tuition for a girl at a private school.

A lake house roof.

Birdie tapped the last line with a crooked finger.

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