For a few seconds Hawthorne looked older than his fifty-eight years. His eyes moved toward the windows, where the buildings below seemed indifferent to everything he had accomplished. He had spent fifteen years believing Thornfield would collapse without his judgment. Now it was becoming clear that the company had survived despite his blind spots, and somebody else had acquired the power to test that proposition.
Angela closed the first notebook and opened a separate binder. "There is another issue," she said. "During diligence, our forensic accountants identified corporate expense transactions that require review. Some may have ordinary explanations. Others currently lack supporting documentation."
Webb stiffened. "What transactions?"
"Executive entertainment charges, travel reimbursements, related-party consulting, and use of company aircraft," Angela said. "The amounts are material enough that the new audit committee will examine them. We are preserving records, not announcing criminal verdicts."
She pointed to the categories without making a performance of individual embarrassment. An expense account associated with Webb contained forty-seven restaurant charges that could not yet be matched to valid vendors. Travel claimed as client development appeared to overlap with private vacations by another executive. A consultancy connected to a senior manager's spouse had received approximately six hundred thousand dollars over several years without easily identifiable work product, while corporate flight logs raised questions about more than a million dollars of personal aircraft usage.
The men reacted differently. One immediately asked to retain separate counsel. Another insisted all expenses had been approved. Webb called the accountants incompetent, then asked whether he could take his laptop home to retrieve receipts. Martin told him that records relevant to a preservation notice could not be removed or altered, and Angela watched the lawyer finally begin acting like counsel to the corporation rather than the chairman's personal defender.
"You can't threaten people with these accusations to make them resign," Martin said, looking at Angela.
"I agree," she replied. "I'm not offering anyone immunity, and I'm not using potential misconduct as leverage to silence them. The new board will commission a documented review and refer confirmed concerns to the appropriate authorities if the evidence warrants it. Departing executives retain their legal rights, including the right to disagree with me publicly. Accountability isn't blackmail in a more expensive suit."
Hawthorne stared at her with a strange expression. He appeared disappointed that she would not become the same kind of leader he had been, a person who treated legal process as an inconvenient prop in a personal contest. Had she promised to bury the irregularities in exchange for his silence, he might have recognized a familiar negotiation. She had removed that possibility before he could suggest it.
"Then this is about making an example of us," he said.
"You already made an example of yourselves," Angela answered. "You were given an opportunity to ask who I was and why I had access to this meeting. Instead, you decided I belonged with the catering staff. I didn't make you say those things."