Chapter 10 - The Evidence Room
By noon, Priya Nand had ordered the twenty-ninth floor sealed and convened an emergency board session in the largest conference room. Ridgewell's general counsel arrived with two outside attorneys. Lydia arrived with her own. Graham Sloane entered last, carrying a leather folder and the confidence of a man who still believed procedure belonged to him.
Malcolm and Eli sat at the far end of the table. Daniela joined them by secure video from a witness room. Helena Voss presided, though the strain around her eyes suggested she understood that the board was no longer judging a scandal from a safe distance.
"We will establish facts," Helena said. "No accusations without documentation."
Priya pressed a button. The wall screen displayed a timeline assembled from Claire's capsule, Reed's access log, and Eli's copied file.
Date Recorded event Approving access
March 4 Eight emergency failures entered into Morrow Claire Avery
March 5 "Six failures removed; report sent to regulator" Lydia Crane
March 6 Payment routed to Morrow Civic Strategies Graham Sloane
March 7 Claire Avery died in highway collision Restricted fleet vendor
No one spoke for several seconds. The air-conditioning whispered overhead. Somewhere beyond the glass, an assistant dropped a stack of folders.
"A timeline is not proof of causation," Sloane said.
"No," Priya replied. "But it is proof that your earlier statement to this board was false. You said Morrow Civic Strategies had no Ridgewell connection."
Lydia leaned toward the microphone. "The payments were authorized under a contingency procurement policy. The reports were corrected because the original entries contained duplications."
"Six failures were not duplicates," Eli said.
Every face turned toward him.
His fear remained, but it no longer controlled his voice. "I compared the original data with the second copy. The failures occurred at different facilities, on different dates, under different contract numbers. Someone changed the records after the system flagged them."
Sloane rose. "This is an inappropriate spectacle built around a dead employee's grief."
Malcolm opened Claire's voice file. Her unfinished recording filled the room, soft beneath the hum of the speakers.
"The witness is young..."
May you like
The recording cut off.
Lydia closed her eyes.
