Sarah did not offer comfort. "Send me your written account. Exact times, what you saw, what you heard, what you collected. No adjectives. I can work with facts."
After that call, Darius telephoned the settlement administrator with Loretta's permission. He learned that the check had cleared its issuance review, that it had been drawn on an established trust account, and that a replacement could be provided once a declaration of loss and bank confirmation were processed. He asked whether emergency electronic disbursement was possible because of a documented tax deadline. The administrator promised to investigate, not to perform a miracle. Darius accepted the distinction.
At home, Loretta had placed the tax notice on her kitchen table and tried to drink mint tea. Her hands shook whenever she pictured Harlon's fingers closing around the check. She kept remembering his smile after the first tear, the way he had looked around the room for approval. The cruelty had not been an accident that escaped him in a moment of temper. He had arranged it as a performance.
The telephone rang at six twenty. The caller identified herself as being from account services at Harland. Loretta pressed the receiver to her ear and reached for a pen.
"We are notifying you of irregular activity on your escrow-linked account," the woman said.
"What irregularity?"
"Several scheduled transfers have been returned, and the account is now subject to enhanced review."
"I have statements showing those transfers were accepted. I can read you the transaction numbers."
"The system record is authoritative, Mrs. Johnson."
"Then the system record is mistaken."
The woman's voice tightened. "I'm not here to debate banking procedures. A restriction may be applied until we complete our investigation."
Loretta wrote the caller's first name, the time, and every phrase she could remember. Thomas had taught her to save receipts. Years of teaching had taught her to write down who said what before memory softened the edges. She asked for the notice in writing and an explanation of her appeal rights. The caller promised a letter but offered no deadline.
When the conversation ended, Loretta walked through the house looking for something to do. She dusted a windowsill that was already clean. She checked the kitchen door, watered the African violets, and folded a dish towel into an exact square. In the living room, her husband's photograph stood on a shelf between two school portraits of Darius. She touched the frame and felt a sudden, sharp loneliness. Thomas would have been furious at what had happened, but he also would have known how to sit beside her without trying to solve her feelings before she was ready.
"I could use your steady hands today," she whispered.
Then she took a yellow legal pad from the desk and wrote everything down. She began with the time she entered the bank, the name on Nina's badge, the position of Barnes near the door, and each request Harlon refused. By the time she finished, two pages were covered in neat teacher's handwriting. She placed them in a folder marked MONDAY and tucked the folder beneath the tax notice.