"Your judgment affected someone outside this company," Victoria said. "You put him in the position of having to explain something he didn't cause, and you did it because you refused to believe his first act could be honest."
Linda stared at her, then left without shaking her hand. Victoria remained in her office for a long time after the door closed. She had made difficult personnel decisions before, some justified and some merely expedient, but this one carried a more personal responsibility. She knew Linda had become suspicious partly because Victoria herself had spent years rewarding suspicion over trust.
Later that afternoon, Bobby contacted the security office at Sterling Living and asked to speak with someone about a delivery he had been paid to make. Ethan connected him with counsel, who listened and explained that he could provide his account voluntarily. Bobby described the assignment, produced his messages, and said he regretted leaving the wallet on Daniel's porch. He also admitted he had accepted the job because he needed the money.
The company did not promise him immunity from any legal consequence, and the decision about the found property remained with the appropriate authorities. But Bobby's account clarified how the second wallet had come to be there. Linda had arranged it deliberately, and her attempt to portray it as an ordinary precaution no longer matched the evidence.
Victoria called Daniel that evening. He answered from the workshop with the sound of a saw running in the background, then turned the machine off when he recognized her voice. She asked whether she could come by, and he heard enough tension to know the request was not casual. He told her he would be there until eight.
When she arrived, the sky was dark and the porch light was on. Alice had gone home, and the workshop smelled faintly of cedar oil. Daniel offered tea before Victoria spoke, but she shook her head. He waited while she searched for a way to say something that no chief executive training had taught her to say.
"Someone left a wallet at your house," she began.
He set the kettle down. "Yes. I took it to the police."
"I know. And I know why it was there."
She told him about Linda's arrangement, the courier, the invented identification, and the money. Daniel listened without interrupting, though his expression grew more guarded with each sentence. When Victoria reached the part about the employment review, he crossed his arms and looked toward the closed workshop door. For a while neither spoke.
"You had nothing to do with it?" he asked at last.
"Nothing. I didn't know until today."
"Did you ask someone to look into me after I returned your wallet?"