The Woman Who Had Never Received Her Two Hundred Forty Dollars

I wanted to drive straight to Mason's house with those blue slips.

Instead, I called Celia.

"Put them in a folder," she said. "Don't write another word on them. I'll make copies with you here."

Nora watched me slide them into a clean envelope.

"Is my project evidence now?"

"Some of the pages are."

"Can I still turn it in?"

That nearly broke me. My child was trying to meet a Friday deadline while I tried to prove I wasn't a thief.

"We'll ask your teacher for more time."

"Grandpa said you should finish a thing when you can."

I let her finish the cover while I made supper.

The next morning, Celia introduced me to Ben Ortiz, the outside accountant. His tie had a coffee mark. Somehow, that made it easier to sit down.

He matched the blue slips to the refund list.

"Same booking numbers," he said. "Same amounts."

"So that proves it?"

"It proves the cancellations were real and your brother saw them. We still need to follow the money."

He showed me a copy of the agreement between the fund and the ride company. Canceled prepaid rides had to be credited to the fund within thirty days.

"No cash to passengers," I said.

"Correct. They never paid a fare."

On April thirtieth, the fund had paid Mason's invoice for all twenty-six canceled rides. On May third, his company's books showed six thousand two hundred forty dollars going out as passenger refunds.

Each cash receipt had my badge number. Each claimed a rider had signed for the money.

"I didn't make these," I said.

"Let's ask the people whose names are on them."

Celia called the riders herself. She asked each one whether Ben could discuss a payment record. She didn't give me their forms or ask me to carry private papers around town.

The first person who agreed to come in was Alma Ruiz.

I knew her laugh from night calls. She always apologized for needing a ride, then spent ten minutes making sure our drivers had eaten.

She came wearing a straw hat with a bent brim.

"I heard what happened at the supper," she told me. "Wasn't there. Don't much like paying twelve dollars to eat beans I could cook."

I smiled for the first time since Saturday.

Ben set one receipt before her.

"Did you receive this cash?"

"No."

"Is that your signature?"

She leaned close.

"That's my name. It isn't my hand."

He asked her to write that on a separate statement. Then he asked whether she had used our van on the date listed.

"I took the hospital shuttle. June called me herself to say it was free. Saved me a whole morning worrying about being late."

I stared at the edge of the desk.

"Look up, girl," Alma said. "I know who called me."

By that afternoon, four riders had denied getting cash. Ben had appointments with more.

Mother called while I waited outside Nora's school.

"Your brother says you took company papers."

"He gave Nora scraps for a school project."

"He says they're being twisted."

I watched children line up beside a teacher holding a red stop sign.

"Mom, did you ask him why Dad approved refunds six months after his funeral?"

She said nothing.

"Ask him that before you ask me anything else."

After we hung up, my phone shook in my hand. Standing up to Mason was one thing. Asking Mother to look at him clearly was another.

That evening, Nora needed a medicine refill. At the pharmacy counter, I counted forty-eight dollars from an envelope marked RENT.

She watched me fold the empty corner down.

"I have my birthday money."

"That's yours."

"Medicine is yours too."

"Keeping you supplied is my job."

I said it gently, but I meant it. She could help find a paper. She could not become the person who paid our bills.

Back home, I listed things I could sell. A sewing machine. Two spare chairs. My wedding dishes, though the wedding had ended years before.

Before I finished, Celia called.

"We have nine signed statements now. None of those riders received money."

"What did Mason say?"

"He's still blaming you. But his bookkeeper has asked to speak to Ben alone."

I shut my notebook.

"Della?"

"She's bringing a record marked vehicle deposit. It's for exactly six thousand two hundred forty dollars."