"A simple verification," Linda answered. "A measure of character."
"Whose character?"
"The man Victoria keeps visiting."
Ethan felt the room go still around him. "You arranged an investigation into Daniel Brooks?"
"I arranged a test. There's a difference."
"Did he know about it?"
"Of course not. That would defeat the purpose."
Ethan stood. "Victoria needs to hear this from you. Today."
Linda insisted that she had used her own money and that no company policy had been violated. Ethan answered that privately funding an act did not remove the problems it could create for a company's leadership, particularly when the person arranging it had used her senior position to obtain information and had attempted to bill the business afterward. He told her to preserve the relevant communications. She accused him of overreacting, but she looked away before he finished speaking.
Victoria learned the first details from Ethan, then insisted that Linda come to her office and explain without interruption. Linda arrived with a folder and a prepared justification. She described the value of the second wallet, the invented identification card, the courier, and the expected outcome as though presenting a particularly thorough quality-control inspection. Victoria listened until Linda said that honest people should have nothing to fear from being tested.
"Did Daniel consent to any of this?" Victoria asked.
"No. But that's why it was useful."
"Useful to whom?"
"To you. To the company. To anyone who cares about protecting what you've built."
Victoria stood and walked toward the window. She thought of Daniel answering her questions about Claire, of Alice laughing at the workshop, and of a man who had returned her mother's ring without requiring an audience. She thought also of the authority Linda wielded over employees who were expected to take her decisions seriously. "You didn't protect me," she said. "You used someone who had done nothing wrong as an object in an experiment."
Linda's certainty began to fray. "I was worried about you."
"Then you should have spoken to me. You did speak to me, and I told you the matter was closed."
"You weren't listening."
"I listened," Victoria said. "I disagreed. Those are not the same thing."
The distinction landed hard. Linda had spent years believing that a good deputy prevented bad decisions before a chief executive made them. She had become accustomed to substituting her own judgment whenever she believed Victoria was distracted, and now she was being told that the very habit which once made her valuable had crossed a boundary she could not defend.
Victoria instructed Ethan and corporate counsel to review the expense request and preserve communications related to the incident. She told Linda that she was being removed from operational duties pending an immediate employment review. Linda demanded to know whether twelve years of work could be discarded because of a man Victoria had known for a few weeks. Victoria answered that her work was not being erased, but her decision had consequences.