Chapter 13: Installments

I turned on the overhead light and held the envelopes against my chest.

Lorne woke the way he does everything, all at once and with a plan.

"Those are mine," he said.

"I'm holding them."

"Roxie."

"I'm holding them, Lorne. You know what that means."

He sat up with the blanket around his waist and looked at the stack in my arms.

Then he looked at the window, where his phone was still lit.

"You read the phone," he said.

"It was face up, in big letters."

"And?"

"You told me on day one that payroll goes out Friday. I thought you meant the company."

"I did mean the company."

"You meant you."

He rubbed his face with both hands.

"There's a term," he said, through his fingers.

"Four. No talk of money."

"Thank you."

"Term four was written by a man who owes four hundred and eighty thousand dollars."

"Four hundred and eighty thousand and some interest."

"Eleven payrolls of forty-one thousand is four hundred and fifty-one thousand," I said.

"I did the sum in the dark, standing up. I'm very proud of it."

"The sum is right."

"So where did the other twenty-nine thousand go?"

"The first payroll was from my savings. The loan covered the rest and the lawyers."

"And the crackers?"

"The crackers are cheap," he said, with dignity.

I sat on the edge of the mattress with the envelopes in my lap.

I had been planning to be furious, and I could feel it leaving.

"I thought you were the Axe," I said. "I thought you were a man who cut things."

"Margaret thinks so. That's useful."

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