Ghost Roll

An original, thrilling story featuring Bell Elkins—the prosecuting attorney of poverty-stricken but stunningly beautiful Raythune County, West Virginia—from Pulitzer Prize—winning author Julia Keller. The local bank manager alerts Bell Elkins to a suspiciously large number of small cash deposits from the owner of a new children's day-care center along Route 6. Bell's intrigued, because drug dealers often use cash-heavy businesses to launder their money. Indeed, when Bell checks out the Little Miracles Day Care, she discovers that there are only two kids there. But the roll says that sixteen kids are in residence that day and previous days. It's a "ghost roll"—a fake set of books, inhabited by non-existent children, a cover for the owners to make cash deposits each day that are really, of course, ill-gotten gains. But can Bell and Sheriff Harrison plan a raid on the place...without putting the children in harm's way?