THE HONEST RETURN

Chapter 1 The Unfinished Account On the first warm morning of April 1957, Sheriff Amos Bell carried a letter into First Becker County Bank. The brass bell above the door rang softly. Mabel Crane looked up from her drawer. “Another mystery?” “An unfinished one.” The bank’s new manager, Thomas Reed, met him beside the office door. Reed was a careful man who asked questions before offering answers. Amos appreciated that. On his desk lay a ledger opened to an account marked Holding—Rural Transfers. “There is a balance of three thou sand, six hundred dollars,” Reed said. “No withdrawals since 1944. No named owner.” “County money?” “We do not know. It was not part of the farm fund recovered last autumn. It appears separately in the surviving records.” Amos looked closely at the entries. Beside the last deposit someone had written a single word. Return. Reed placed a second sheet on the desk. “Walter Haynes instructed that this account remain outside ordinary customer statements.” Haynes had been dead for years. The harm from his choices kept arriving as though he were still sending letetters. Amos folded his own letter and put it away. “Then we find the owner.” “And if there is more than one?” “Then we find them all.