Chapter 2 - The Chairman on the Ladder
“Don't touch her belongings.”
Adrian's voice stopped both security officers.
Patricia's expression remained composed.
“Chairman, this is an internal security matter.”
“Then it can remain internal for another sixty seconds.”
Lena stood frozen beside the table.
The blue folder suddenly felt radioactive.
One of the security officers, Marcus Hill, glanced between Adrian and Patricia.
“Sir, we received a report that restricted financial documents were removed from administration.”
“From whom?”
“Ms. Vale.”
Adrian looked at Patricia.
“And when did you make that report?”
“Eight minutes ago.”
Lena turned sharply.
Eight minutes.
That meant Patricia had reported the document missing almost immediately after Lena left her office.
Perhaps before Lena even discovered it.
Adrian apparently made the same calculation.
“What time did you discover it missing?”
Patricia didn't blink.
“Approximately nine twenty.”
Lena looked at the large brass clock above the reading room.
Nine thirty-one.
She had left Patricia's office around nine seventeen.
Something cold moved through her chest.
Adrian held out his hand.
“Marcus, give me the incident report.”
Patricia interrupted.
“Chairman, surely you don't intend to interfere with protocol because Ms. Brooks told you an emotional story.”
Lena flinched.
There it was again.
Emotional.
Adrian noticed.
His gaze hardened.
“No. I intend to interfere because the person who reported a document stolen is also the person whose authorization appears on it.”
Patricia's smile disappeared.
Marcus handed him the report.
Adrian read it.
Then looked up.
“This says the missing transfer authorization was discovered at nine fourteen.”
Silence.
Lena stared at Patricia.
Nine fourteen.
Before Lena had even received the fourth no.
Patricia's jaw tightened.
“A clerical mistake.”
“Maybe.”
Adrian folded the report.
“Or maybe not.”
Patricia stepped closer.
“You're making an extraordinary assumption.”
“I'm making none.”
He looked at Marcus.
“Secure the document. Photograph it where it was found. Photograph the folder. Nobody removes anything else.”
Marcus nodded.
Patricia did not.
“Chairman—”
“And pull camera footage from the administrative corridor from eight thirty until now.”
That landed.
Lena saw it.
Only for a fraction of a second.
Fear.
Patricia recovered quickly.
“The hallway camera has been unreliable.”
Adrian stared at her.
“How convenient.”
Lena wanted to disappear.
Twenty minutes earlier, she had been fighting for children's workbooks.
Now security officers were photographing her proposal like evidence from a crime scene.
Adrian turned toward her.
“Do you have somewhere private we can talk?”
She almost laughed.
“You're the chairman. Don't you?”
For the first time since Patricia arrived, his expression softened.
“Fair point.”
He led Lena toward a small glass-walled study room.
Before entering, she looked back.
Patricia was speaking quietly to Marcus.
Then Patricia met Lena's eyes.
No smile this time.
Just a warning.
Inside the study room, Adrian closed the door.
Lena immediately spoke.
“I didn't steal that document.”
“I know.”
“You can't know.”
“I know the report says it disappeared before you entered Patricia's office.”
“That doesn't prove anything.”
“No. But it proves her story has a problem.”
Lena sat.
Her knees felt weak.
Adrian took the chair opposite her.
“Tell me exactly what happened.”
So she did.
She described arriving at eight fifty.
Waiting outside Patricia's office.
Being called in at nine twelve.
The conversation.
The rejection.
The folder being pushed across the desk.
Adrian interrupted.
“Did the folder leave your sight?”
Lena thought.
“For maybe ten seconds.”
“When?”
“Patricia dropped her pen. I bent down because it rolled near my chair.”
“Did she touch the folder?”
“She already had it.”
Adrian leaned back.
Lena understood.
“You think she put the paper inside.”
“I think we need evidence.”
“Why would she?”
“That is the eighty-four-thousand-dollar question.”
Despite everything, Lena almost smiled.
Almost.
Adrian's phone buzzed repeatedly.
He ignored it.
“You should go to your meeting.”
“This is more important.”
“You don't even know me.”
“I don't need to know you to know that financial records shouldn't mysteriously appear inside rejected proposals.”
Lena studied him.
He didn't behave like the billionaires she'd seen interviewed on television.
No polished speech.
No performance of importance.
He had been shelving a book.
“Why were you on that ladder?”
The question surprised him.
“I like this room.”
“That doesn't answer me.”
“My mother used to bring me here.”
Lena waited.
Adrian looked through the glass toward the shelves.
“She was a public-school teacher. We didn't have much money when I was young. She treated libraries like palaces where nobody checked your bank account before letting you inside.”
Lena hadn't expected that.
“My father died when I was eleven,” he continued. “She worked two jobs for a while. Every Saturday, she'd bring me here because it was free, safe, and warm.”
“That's why your foundation funded the renovation?”
“Partly.”
His phone buzzed again.
This time he checked it.
His expression changed.
“What?”
Adrian stood.
“The hallway footage.”
“Already?”
“Marcus sent me a message.”
Lena rose.
“What did it show?”
“Nothing.”
Her heart sank.
“The camera?”
“Went offline at eight fifty-seven.”
Three minutes before Lena arrived.
Adrian stared through the glass.
“Someone knew exactly what they were doing.”
The board meeting was postponed.
Officially, the reason was a technical issue.
Unofficially, Adrian ordered an immediate financial review.
Lena returned to work because she didn't know what else to do.
For the next four hours, whispers followed her.
At lunch, nobody sat beside her.
At one fifteen, her supervisor asked her to surrender her building access card temporarily.
At two, her library email stopped working.
At two twenty, she was called into Human Resources.
The woman behind the desk looked uncomfortable.
“Lena, this isn't disciplinary.”
“When people start sentences that way, it's usually disciplinary.”
“We're placing you on paid administrative leave pending review.”
Lena stared.
“For being framed?”
“We haven't established that.”
“But you've established enough to remove me.”
“This protects everyone.”
“Does it protect Patricia?”
No answer.
Lena nodded.
“Right.”
She placed her badge on the desk.
TEMPORARY.
She stared at that word one last time.
Then she walked downstairs.
Her Saturday-program families would arrive in five days.
She didn't know whether she would be allowed inside.
Near the exit, Adrian was waiting.
“You're leaving?”
“They suspended me.”
His face tightened.
“I didn't authorize that.”
“Apparently you're not the only person with authority around here.”
“Lena—”
“Don't.”
He stopped.
She lowered her voice.
“I appreciate what you did. But every time powerful people start fighting, people like me become the easiest pieces to remove from the board.”
“This isn't a game.”
“It is to somebody.”
She pushed through the doors.
Adrian followed.
“Let me drive you home.”
“No.”
“Then let me at least—”
“No.”
She turned.
“I need one part of today to belong to me.”
He understood.
“All right.”
Lena walked away.
She made it three blocks before her phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
She almost ignored it.
Then a message appeared.
YOU SHOULD HAVE ACCEPTED NO.
Lena stopped.
Another message arrived.
THE $840 WAS A WARNING.
Her breath caught.
Then came a photograph.
It showed Lena standing beneath the library ladder with Adrian.
Taken that morning.
From inside the library.
A final message appeared.
STAY AWAY FROM THE CHAIRMAN OR SATURDAY WILL BE THE LEAST OF YOUR PROBLEMS.
Lena immediately called Adrian.
He answered on the first ring.
“Lena?”
“Someone photographed us.”
Silence.
“Send it to me.”
She did.
Three seconds later, Adrian said, “Where are you?”
“Jefferson and Fifth.”
“Go somewhere public. I'm coming.”
“Adrian—”
“Please.”
Something in his voice stopped her.
Lena entered a crowded coffee shop.
Ten minutes later, Adrian arrived.
He sat across from her and studied the messages.
“Do you recognize the number?”
“No.”
He enlarged the photograph.
Then his eyes narrowed.
“What?”
“The angle.”
He turned the screen.
The picture had been taken from an upper balcony overlooking the east reading room.
Only staff and board members had access before ten.
Adrian zoomed in on a reflection in the glass cabinet behind Lena.
A person was visible.
Barely.
But one detail was clear.
A silver bracelet.
Lena stared at it.
She had seen that bracelet before.
That morning.
On Patricia Vale's wrist.
Before either of them could speak, Lena's phone rang again.
This time the caller ID displayed a name.
Hawthorne Library Finance.
She answered.
“Hello?”
A woman whispered.
“Ms. Brooks?”
“Yes?”
“My name is Evelyn Price. I work in accounting.”
The woman's breathing sounded uneven.
“I can't talk long.”
“About what?”
“The eighty-four thousand dollars.”
Adrian leaned closer.
Evelyn whispered five words.
“It wasn't the first transfer.”
Lena felt her stomach turn.
“How many?”
A noise sounded on Evelyn's end.
A door.
Then Evelyn gasped.
“Someone's here.”
The line went dead.
Adrian immediately called back.
No answer.
He stood.
“Where is accounting?”
“Third floor.”
They rushed back toward the library.
When they reached the finance corridor, Evelyn's office door was open.
Her chair was empty.
Her computer was still running.
On the desk sat a red binder.
Adrian opened it.
The first page contained Lena's name.
Below it was a transfer history dating back eighteen months.
And at the bottom of the page was another name.
May you like
Adrian Cole.
Someone had been moving money under his authorization.
