The Ledger Behind the Flour Sacks
Chapter 06 - The Ledger Behind the Flour Sacks
Mrs. Bell had owned the General Store for forty-one years.
She had also kept everything.
Receipts.
Letters.
Tax notices.
Handwritten account books tied with string.
When Daniel asked whether she remembered his father, she locked the front door and led him into the storage room.
"You won't like what I remember," she said.
"I haven't liked much since I arrived."
Mrs. Bell climbed a stool and pulled a ledger from behind three sacks of flour.
The book was dated 1915.
Daniel had disappeared in 1916.
She opened to a page marked BENNETT, THOMAS.
There were entries for canned beans, lamp oil, boots, and medicine.
Then a final line:
Cash credit — $50.00 — H. Hale arrangement.
Daniel stared at it.
"Fifty dollars."
Mrs. Bell nodded.
"The same amount on your surrender paper."
Clara stood near the doorway.
Daniel looked at her.
She had not touched the ledger.
She seemed afraid to.
Mrs. Bell continued.
"Thomas was drowning in debt. Harold Hale offered him a way out."
"What way?"
"That's where things get ugly."
According to Mrs. Bell, Harold Hale had a sister in Kansas City married to a wealthy couple who could not have children.
The Mercers.
Daniel's adoptive parents.
Harold arranged private placements for families through a lawyer.
Some were legal.
Others were not.
Daniel's voice dropped.
"Are you saying my father sold me to pay a debt?"
Mrs. Bell shook her head.
"I'm saying he took fifty dollars."
Clara closed her eyes.
Daniel's anger returned, but this time it had a target.
"Then my mother knew nothing."
Mrs. Bell hesitated.
Daniel saw it.
"What?"
"There was another payment."
She turned the page.
Three months after Daniel vanished, Thomas Bennett received five hundred dollars.
That was a fortune in Bellweather.
The notation beside it contained only two words.
Mercer trust.
Clara gripped the shelf.
"I never saw that money."
Daniel looked toward her.
"Where did it go?"
A voice came from the doorway.
Victor.
"My grandfather used it to pay off your husband's mortgage."
Everyone turned.
May you like
Victor held a cigarette between two fingers.
Then he added, "And Clara's name is on that document too."
