He did not sit. He stood by the rolltop desk.
"The CD," he said. "Your mother's money. June's money. Dan Albright told me you were in the bank in July."
Claire closed her eyes briefly. "You went to the bank."
"I thought you were having an affair with my loan officer, Claire. I thought you were paying somebody off. I sat in his office and asked about the interest rate on my operating note and looked at his hands." He heard how it sounded and did not care. "Where's the money?"
"About half of it is still there. In savings." She opened her eyes. "I spent twenty-eight hundred dollars. Eleven hundred to fill the Ferrises' propane tank in September so they'd have heat this winter. Six hundred on their light bill. Some on the hospital. Some on groceries he took home. The coveralls. The gloves went on the Hanson's account because I was buying mineral at the same time and I didn't think." She let out a breath. "I told Lynette it was from the church. From the benevolence fund. She'd never have taken it otherwise. So that's another lie. You can put it on the list."
"Why? He was working off a debt to us. Why were you paying his bills on top of it?"
"Because if he was working for nothing, Wade, his family still had nothing. Every hour he spent in our barn was an hour he wasn't bagging groceries in Grass Range for actual money. And the first time that propane tank ran dry in January he'd have been right back out at somebody's fence with a rope, and the next time it wouldn't have been me who drove up. It would have been some rancher with a rifle and no patience. You know that's true."