He understood immediately.
“Right.”
“They come if they choose.”
“How?”
“We make it safe.”
“How?”
Eliza looked toward the school ledgers.
“Public meeting.”
Nathan leaned back.
“You’re going after his accounts.”
“Yes.”
“And if the harassment comes out?”
“Then it comes from women who volunteer it.”
He smiled faintly.
“What?”
“You are terrifying.”
“You said that before.”
“Still true.”
The public meeting was scheduled for October 3.
Grayson resisted.
Harlan eventually agreed after Nathan and three parents formally requested review of school expenditures.
Then something unexpected happened.
Mr. Harlan arrived at Nathan’s ranch alone.
He looked ill.
Nathan brought him inside.
Eliza sat opposite.
Harlan removed his hat.
“I knew some invoices were high.”
Eliza’s expression tightened.
“How high?”
“I didn’t know.”
“You signed them.”
“Yes.”
“Without checking?”
His face reddened.
“Grayson said costs had risen.”
“And you accepted that.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Harlan looked miserable.
“Because he holds the mortgage on my mill.”
There it was.
Power rarely exists alone.
It builds strings.
Harlan continued.
“I thought if I challenged him…”
“He would call the note.”
“Yes.”
Nathan leaned forward.
“So you let him take school money.”
Harlan’s eyes filled.
“I told myself it was small.”
Eliza asked:
“Did you personally receive anything?”
“No.”
“Can you prove that?”
“I think so.”
“Will you testify?”
Fear crossed his face.
Nathan looked toward Eliza.
She waited.
This had to be Harlan’s answer.
Finally:
“Yes.”
The investigation widened.
Not officially yet.
Privately.
Eliza copied every invoice.
Nathan rode to Pine Ridge and obtained county price records.
Coal had not increased.
Lamp oil had.
But not by forty percent.
Timber repairs charged to the school had been performed on Grayson’s warehouse instead.
That discovery came from a carpenter.
He had been told the school board authorized emergency repairs.
The invoice number matched.
Eliza stared at the paper.
“This is fraud.”
Nathan nodded.
“And now we can prove it.”
That night they celebrated with pie.
Nathan had purchased it in town.
Eliza took one bite.
Then frowned.
“What?”
“This crust is terrible.”
Nathan looked offended on behalf of a baker he barely knew.
“I paid thirty cents.”
“You were robbed twice.”
He laughed.
Eliza smiled.
Then Nathan reached across.
A crumb sat near the corner of her mouth.
His thumb stopped inches away.
He looked into her eyes.
Permission.
Eliza’s breathing changed.
She nodded almost imperceptibly.
Nathan touched her face.
Removed the crumb.
His hand remained.