Chương 6
“The video should settle that.”
“When?”
“When it is lawfully obtained.”
Malcolm’s hand tightened around a pen.
Victor continued.
“There is another issue.”
Of course there was.
“Grant’s lawyer has sent notice suggesting Leah participated in unauthorized transfers involving Mercer vendors.”
Malcolm’s face hardened.
“What?”
Victor looked almost regretful.
“They attached two approvals bearing her signature.”
Malcolm felt the room around him become very still.
“One is Briar House,” Victor said.
Malcolm did not answer.
Victor noticed.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Malcolm.”
“Continue.”
Victor studied him through the screen.
“They are threatening a civil claim if we characterize Grant publicly as having exploited company information.”
“Are the signatures valid?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“Find out.”
“I will.”
“Quietly.”
Victor paused.
“I’d advise against initiating a broad internal investigation until this family dispute is stabilized.”
Malcolm looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because if Leah did sign those documents, an investigation could expose her.”
“She didn’t steal from me.”
“That isn’t what I said.”
Malcolm stared at the screen.
Victor’s expression was calm.
Helpful.
Protective, even.
It was exactly how he had looked for twenty-two years.
Yet something in Malcolm did not settle.
Maybe because Leah had said Finance and Legal had approved the amendment.
Maybe because Victor had just tried to stop the investigation before Malcolm had even asked for one.
Or maybe because fear made old friends look different.
Malcolm did not trust fear.
Not yet.
He ended the call.
Then he phoned Leah.
She answered on the sixth ring.
“What?”
“Good morning to you too.”
“I’m concussed and Nina is making eggs.”
He heard Nina in the background.
“I’m not making eggs. I’m destroying eggs.”
Leah said, “What happened?”
“Grant’s attorney sent your signatures.”
Silence.
“Which ones?”
“Briar House and something called North Meridian.”
Another silence.
“Leah?”
“I signed North Meridian too.”
Malcolm stood from his desk.
“You told me one.”
“I told you about Briar House.”
“How many did you sign?”
“Four.”
He closed his eyes.
“Four?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because after the first one, Grant told me they were correcting the same administrative problem.”
“And you believed him four times?”
“No.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means the first two times I believed him.”
“And the other two?”
Leah’s voice became smaller.
“He knew I’d started looking.”
Malcolm sat down again.
“What did he say?”
“That the first approvals were enough to make me look involved. He showed me transfers tied to my signatures. He said if I suddenly refused the next ones, he’d send everything to the board and say I’d arranged it.”
Malcolm’s anger came so fast that he had to put the phone down on the desk for one second.
When he picked it back up, Leah was saying his name.
“I’m here.”
“You disappeared.”
“I put the phone down.”
“Why?”
“Because I was angry.”
“At me?”
He could have lied.
Instead he said, “Some of it.”
She was quiet.
“And most of it at him,” he added.
“That doesn’t cancel the first part.”
“No.”
Nina said something in the background.
Leah answered her, then returned.
“Dad, I knew what I was doing on the last two.”
Malcolm’s jaw tightened.
“I signed them because I was scared.”
“Then we explain that.”
“To whom?”
“The board.”
“That’s not how this works.”
“I know how my board works.”
“You know how they treat you. I’m not you.”
The sentence stopped him.
Leah continued.
“If I tell them Grant pressured me, some will believe me. Some will think I’m minimizing my own role. Both things can be true.”
“You weren’t stealing.”
“I helped move money.”
“You were coerced.”
“I was also trying to protect myself.”
“That matters.”
“So does the money.”
Malcolm looked out over Midtown from his office.
“What do you want to do?”
Leah did not answer immediately.
The pause mattered.
He had asked.
Not told.
Finally she said, “I want an outside investigation.”
Malcolm smiled without humor.
“Victor advised against one.”
She became very quiet.
“What?”
“He thinks it could expose you unnecessarily.”
“Victor said that?”
“Yes.”
“Exact words?”
“Close enough.”
“No. Exact.”
Malcolm thought back.
“He said we shouldn’t initiate a broad internal investigation until the family dispute was stabilized.”
Leah said nothing.
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“Leah.”
“At the suite, the other man said something.”
“What?”
“I couldn’t make it out at first. Grant was yelling.”
“What did he say?”
She closed her eyes on the other end of the line.
“Something about containing it.”
Malcolm’s hand stopped moving.
Victor used that word constantly.
Contain the exposure.
Contain the litigation.
Contain the damage.
It was not evidence. Half the corporate world used it.
Leah said, “Don’t do what you’re doing.”
“What am I doing?”
“Deciding it was him because one word fits.”
Malcolm leaned back.
“Fair.”
“I don’t know who was there.”
“Fair.”
“But don’t let Victor control the investigation.”
Malcolm looked at the framed photograph on his credenza.
Leah at twenty-one, hair shorter, holding a college diploma in one hand and glaring at Malcolm because he had taken a business call during lunch.
Victor stood at the edge of the picture, laughing at something outside the frame.
Malcolm turned the photograph facedown.
“I won’t.”
The outside firm began work forty-eight hours later.
Victor objected privately and then supported the decision publicly.
That frightened Malcolm more than open resistance would have.
Leah handed the investigators copies of every document she had retained.
Not the drive.
Not yet.
She met them in Nina’s dining room because she was not ready to enter a Mercer office.
They asked where the files came from.
“Grant’s laptop.”
“Did you have authorization to access it?”
“It was in our home and open.”
“That isn’t the same question.”
“No.”
“Did you copy files from Mercer systems?”
“Yes.”
“Using your credentials?”
“Some.”
“Credentials belonging to anyone else?”
Leah paused.
“My father’s old board portal login had never been deactivated on a tablet at his apartment.”
One investigator stopped writing.
Malcolm, sitting across the room, looked up.
May you like
“You used my login?”
Leah stared at him.
