His New Story Needed A Loan That Nobody Had Approved
Part 6 · 3 min read ·
I slept for four hours, then gave up and made toast.
A loan sounded softer than theft. I could see why Nolan had chosen it. A family loan could be explained with a shrug and a promise to repay.
But this had never been family money.
At eight, Alma called me from the office.
"I've checked every board record since January," she said. "There is no loan vote. No loan agreement in our files. Nothing in our accounts."
"What if he made something with my signature?"
"Then we'll ask where he got it."
I put on my green shirt. It pulled a little across my belly, so Daniel helped me move a button using the small sewing kit our mother had given us when we married.
"You don't have to win the room," he said.
"I feel like I do."
"You have to tell them what happened. They have to do their part."
We reached the town hall half an hour early. Ruth had arranged the tables in a square. There was no stage and no giant screen.
A small sign beside the door said that no child would be asked to speak.
I stood still when I read it.
Ruth came over. "Rosa asked whether Eli could come. I told her that was her choice, but he would not be part of the evidence."
"Thank you."
"I should have made that clear the first time."
Alma sat with two thick binders. The other directors, Mae Turner and Owen Blake, checked their copies. Mara sat at the end as the board's lawyer.
Nolan arrived in the same blue jacket he had worn at the fundraiser. He nodded to people near the door. A few nodded back.
He laid a single page in front of Ruth.
"This has gone far enough," he said. "I have the agreement."
Ruth asked him to give copies to the whole board. Alma copied it in the little office across the hall while everyone waited.
I kept my hands flat on my folder.
A man from the fundraiser stopped beside my chair. I remembered his brown coat hanging over its back that night.
"I hope you can explain this," he said.
Before I could answer, Alma looked up.
"We all have records to explain. Please let the meeting do its work."
He moved away. I slid my folder closer and checked the order of my pages. The first one showed the payment I had actually prepared. I would start there, with the thing I knew was true.
The paper said Alder Ride had lent Pine Gate Storage $18,600 for thirty days. It carried my copied signature and a date of March 8.
There was no interest rate. No board approval. No signature from Nolan agreeing to repay it.
"Why would I sign for both sides?" I asked.
"You were the staff contact," he said. "You knew it was temporary."
"I couldn't approve a loan. I couldn't even approve the bus deposit. Alma had to do that."
"We were helping each other."
"Who was helping Eli?"
Ruth lifted her hand gently.
"We'll take each point in order. Nolan, please tell us when and where June gave you this document."
He said I had left it on his desk after work.
"The original paper?" Mara asked.
"A scan."
"Sent from which address?"
"I don't remember."
She wrote that down.
Ruth opened the meeting at six. Every chair was full, and several people stood along the back wall. Rosa sat near the door with Eli. He was drawing in his notebook.
Ruth read the purpose of the meeting. Then she said my suspension had been based on an accusation the board had not reviewed.
"Tonight we will review it," she said.
Alma explained the original $60,000 bus fund. She showed that $41,400 remained in its restricted account after the deposit. None of it had gone to me.
Then she showed the supplier's refund statement.
"The missing $18,600 was returned to a different account," she said. "That account was supplied in a letter bearing June's signature."
Nolan leaned forward.
"Exactly. Her signature."
I felt the room turn toward me again.
Alma did not hurry.
"We will examine that signature," she said. "First, we need to examine your account."
The back door opened. Denise Hart stepped inside carrying a plain brown records folder.
She gave her name to Ruth.
"I'm from the bus supplier," she said. "I brought the complete file."