Chapter 5 - THE SECRET IN THE CONTRACT
Evelyn spent the next morning reviewing the incorporation records with the audit team's outside counsel.
Richard had been listed as an original manager of the holding company that established Northstar Strategic Partners. His name had been removed from later filings, but the original documents remained publicly accessible.
The discovery raised difficult questions.
It did not establish that Richard had directed the questionable payments, and he insisted that he had invested in the consulting venture years earlier before it ever contracted with Harrington Systems.
“I believed Northstar would provide specialized engineering services,” he told the investigators. “When my involvement with Harrington Systems became more substantial, I disclosed the relationship to our general counsel.”
“Where is the disclosure?” Evelyn asked.
Richard's lawyer produced a memorandum from three years earlier.
It confirmed that Richard had disclosed an ownership interest in a company with a similar name.
But it did not establish whether Northstar's current ownership structure, later contracts, or the full scale of the payments had been properly reviewed.
The audit team expanded its investigation.
For the first time, Richard stopped asking when the review would finish.
He began asking what it might uncover.
Meanwhile, Daniel informed Evelyn that Mercer Global's investment committee had scheduled a final review in ten days.
“We can't pause indefinitely,” he said. “Our capital has other potential uses.”
“I understand.”
“Can you give us a defensible recommendation by then?”
“Yes. But I won't manufacture certainty to meet a deadline.”
Daniel smiled.
“That's why you're leading the deal.”
That afternoon, Vanessa requested a private meeting with Evelyn.
They sat across from each other in a small conference room.
Vanessa looked tired, although her clothes were as immaculate as ever.
“I want you to withdraw the complaint about my office.”
“Which complaint?”
“The reputation plan.”
“The evidence has already been submitted to independent counsel. I don't control the investigation.”
“You could tell them it was a misunderstanding.”
“If it was a misunderstanding, the evidence should establish that.”
Vanessa pressed her lips together.
“You don't know what it's like to be the daughter of a man who owns everything in your life.”
Evelyn regarded her carefully.
“No, I don't.”
“Everyone assumes I got this job because of him. They look at me as if I'm stupid before I even open my mouth.”
“Then show them what you can do.”
“I've been trying.”
“By humiliating people?”
Vanessa looked away.
For a moment, the anger seemed to leave her face.
“When I was growing up, my father was always somewhere else. Board meetings. Flights. Negotiations. My mother used to tell me that one day I'd understand why he worked so much. Then she died, and he tried to buy back every hour he'd missed.”
Evelyn waited.
“He created this position because he thought it would help me find my place in the company,” Vanessa continued. “But every time I made a decision, people questioned me.”
“Being questioned isn't the same as being disrespected.”
Vanessa gave a bitter laugh.
“Easy for you to say.”
“No. It took me years to learn it. I lost a job early in my career because I refused to approve a report I believed was misleading. My supervisor told everyone I wasn't a team player. For months, I wondered if standing by my principles had ruined my future.”
“What happened?”
“I found another job. Then another. Eventually, people learned they could trust me.”
Vanessa stared at the table.
“I don't want to become someone nobody respects.”
“Then stop demanding respect as if it's something people owe you. Start behaving in a way that makes it possible.”
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Vanessa stood.
“I don't know if I can forgive you.”
Evelyn remained seated.
“You don't have to forgive me for doing my job.”
Vanessa walked out.
Later that evening, the audit team received a new set of accounting records from a former Northstar bookkeeper.
The records suggested that a portion of the consulting fees had been transferred through a second company before reaching several recipients whose identities were still being verified.
Among the documents was a note referring to a confidential arrangement with the initials V.H.
Vanessa Harrington.
Evelyn read the note twice.
May you like
Then she called the audit committee's counsel.
“I have another document that needs to be preserved,” she said. “And I think we need to interview Vanessa.”
