The Letters by Suzanne Woods Fisher Read Free Book Online Page B

young fellows from church and they built the interior walls, added drywall, and installed a bathroom and a kitchen, tapping into plumbing that was already there. All in two days. Then Rose and Bethany and Mim painted the entire interior a fresh creamy butter color with white on the woodwork. The place was transformed.

    Naomi clapped her hands in delight. “I think this is going to be wonderful, Bethany! And best of all—it means you won’t be moving back to your old town.”
    “Well, I don’t know about that,” Bethany started. “I’ll help Rose get some debts cleared, then I’ll be heading back, for sure.” No doubt.
    “I hope not.” Naomi leaned forward to whisper in her ear. “Did I happen to see Jimmy Fisher drop you off in his buggy yesterday?”
    “That was purely an accident,” Bethany said. She hoped her reputation wasn’t sullied because she had been seen with the likes of Jimmy Fisher. “And it won’t be happening again, I can guarantee you of that.”
    “He is awfully good-looking,” Naomi said, blushing a deeper shade of red. “But just so you’re warned, he goes through girls faster than a bag of potato chips.”
    What? What was Naomi implying? Did she think Bethany was sweet on Jimmy Fisher? She wanted to scotch that suspicion. She was just about to say so when the boys burst through the door, carrying a big rug under their arms.
    “I’ll go help Galen,” Naomi said.
    Bethany instructed the boys to lay the rug straight in the big room—the only room it would fit in. The boys ran outside to bring in some more furniture. Bethany looked around the room. She had to hand it to Rose. It was starting to look less like an afterthought and more like a place someone would want to come to stay. Galen deserved a lot of the credit too. Encouraging Rose, organizing the work to get done. Rose kept insisting that she could manage herself, but Galen ignored her objections and kept at it. She wondered why he was being so kind. She looked out the window, watchingGalen hand something to Rose and tell her something. Rose laughed in response.
    Oh . Of course! He must think of her as an older sister.

    Rose tried not to let it show, as she helped unload Galen’s wagon full of spare furniture, but her stomach was still churning from this morning’s phone call. Allen Turner, a lawyer for the Security Exchange Commission Legal Affairs, called to inform her that Tobe was under suspicion for altering the company books.
    She put a box of towels in the bedroom and sorted through them to see which could be used and which should be cut up into rags. As each pile grew, her thoughts drifted to Tobe, to Dean, to that awful time when everything imploded.
    Someone had sent a letter to the Security Exchange Commission asking for an inquiry about Schrock Investments. How could they keep up such high returns, the letter had asked, when the rest of the economy was doing so poorly? It didn’t add up, the mysterious letter writer accused. That was the first portent—when Dean received a phone call from Allen Turner requesting a meeting after receiving that letter. A tipoff, Allen Turner called it.
    Not much later, checks from Schrock Investments started to bounce. Dean made the appalling discovery that there was no money in the bank, though statements said otherwise.
    Investors caught wind that Schrock Investments was in trouble and demanded their money. Trapped between a rock and a hard place, Dean declared bankruptcy. Then the claims began from investors, which heightened the concern of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Allen Turner waswaiting at the office one morning for Dean to arrive. He had a subpoena for the company books, which Dean handed over. He had nothing to hide, Dean insisted. Allen Turner was stunned to realize that the books were actually physical books, ledgers—no electronic transfer of funds. But Dean didn’t use computers. “I’m a Plain man,” he explained to Allen Turner, “and I run my