“Who signed the cheque Claire deposited?”
“They won’t tell.”
I said, “All right, Bertha, I’ll handle it.”
Bertha said, “What the hell does that bank think it’s trying to put across?”
I said, “There’s no harm in trying.”
“Well, they tried the wrong person. They’re barking up the wrong tree. I’ll… I’ll… ”
“You have the money, haven’t you?”
“We did have it.”
“Then what happened?”
She said, “They’re trying to get my bank to draw it out of my account, on the theory that the whole thing was handled as a collection. Can you beat that?”