PART 2 — THE LEDGER
Mr. Gaines opened his folder and laid a bank statement on the table with the churchs name across the top. Beside it he set a second page, and a third.
I became treasurer in the spring, he said to the hall, and the first thing I did was finish the work Yvonne started. For two years she kept asking why the building fund was shrinking, and for two years she was told to mind the bulletins. But she would not stop asking.
She was right to ask. The money had been quietly moved out, a little at a time, by someone with access to the accounts and the trust of the board.
The woman Darius mocked for making copies was the only person who noticed the churchs building fund being emptied, and the only one brave enough to keep asking who was doing it.
Mr. Gaines turned the last page around. The withdrawals traced back to one board member. Darius went very still, his cup of punch halfway to his mouth.
We are handling it the right way, Mr. Gaines said quietly. The board has been told, the proper authorities have been called, and every dollar is being accounted for and returned. The church will be made whole.
Yvonne did not gloat. That is not how her mother raised her, and it is not how the Lord would have it. She simply set out the sweet potato pie and said she was only glad the building fund was safe now.
My daughter folds the bulletins, the financial advisor had sneered. It turned out the woman folding the bulletins was the only honest set of eyes on the books. That is the church secretary.