Graham looked at Celia. “We should sort out the paperwork before we start deciding what happened.”
I said, “You told us I lost a check.” Then, “Now there’s a document saying I spent the money myself.”
“I’m trying to explain.”
But he didn’t explain. He looked back at the laptop.
I wanted Celia to say she believed me. I hated that I wanted it so badly. She had asked me to replace the money less than an hour earlier; now she was reading a page that made it look as though I’d already been paid. I couldn’t tell what she thought.
“Did you review this when he sent it?” I asked her.
“I saw a reimbursement under the approval limit. Graham had authority to process it.” She stopped, then added, “I didn’t check it with you.”
I pulled my hands into my lap. For six years I’d chased missing receipts because someone had bought screws or paint on the way to rehearsal. Here was an entire grant paid out under my name, and nobody had asked me a thing.
“Call Victor,” I said.
Graham’s head lifted. “He won’t have all the information in front of him.”
“Then he can tell us when he will.”
Celia found the number in the theater’s supplier contacts. She set her phone between us and put it on speaker.
Victor answered with noise behind him. When Celia explained that we were checking the costume account, he asked for a moment. I heard a door shut and then a drawer slide.
“Are you asking for another copy of the invoice?” he said.
“We’re checking whether Nora paid you personally,” Celia said. “For the youth production.”
“No. The theater paid us directly.”
“How much?” I asked.
“Six hundred and twenty dollars.”
I shut my eyes briefly. I had been trying to make room in my memory for thousands of dollars I knew I’d never spent.
“Was anything still owing?” Celia asked.
“No. Settled before your grant came through. I can send the account history.”
“Please do,” she said. “While we’re on the phone.”
We waited. Graham’s phone lit up beside his hand, but he didn’t pick it up. I watched Celia refresh her inbox until Victor’s email arrived.
She opened the history beside the reimbursement request. The actual invoice was $620, with a matching payment from the theater and no balance due. The dates put it before the grant deposit, just as Victor had said.
“That’s everything for this production,” Victor told us. “There wasn’t another costume order.”
Celia thanked him and ended the call. She left both documents open.
I turned toward Graham. “What did I supposedly buy for forty-eight hundred dollars?”
He pushed his chair back a little. For the first time, he addressed neither the screen nor the paperwork.
“Celia, could you give us a minute?”
She looked at me.
I didn’t nod. I kept my eyes on my brother, waiting for him to answer the question in front of her.
“Stay,” I told Celia.
Graham rubbed his forehead. “I need to talk to my sister.”
I followed him into the corridor, leaving the office door open. Celia stayed at her desk. I wouldn’t give him a version of this conversation he could change later.
“The rent was overdue,” he said. “At the shop. They were going to put me out.”
“What did I buy?”
“Nothing. You didn’t buy anything.” He looked toward the rehearsal room. “I made the reimbursement. I put your name on it and sent the money to the business.”
There it was, said quietly enough that I had to lean closer. He had spoken much louder when he blamed me.
“You wrote that I told you to pay the shop.”
“I needed something that would go through. It was under five thousand. I could approve it.”
“And the missing check?”
“I needed time.”
He hadn’t just hoped nobody would notice. He had given them someone to notice instead. I kept my hand against the doorframe because I wanted to shove him, and I didn’t want that to become what he remembered about this afternoon.
“I can sell the press,” he said. “Get the whole forty-eight hundred back. But this has to stay between us. If people hear I stole from the theater, what work am I going to get?”
“You heard Celia ask me to replace it.”
“I wasn’t going to let you pay.”
“You were letting me promise.”
He reached for my arm. I moved it.
