Marcus watched Jennifer from across the floor, reassured at first by the appearance of a senior colleague. He called her name and began telling his version, emphasizing the amount on the check and the extraordinary bravery he believed he had displayed. Jennifer listened without interrupting, then asked whether he had retained the instrument for review. "I destroyed it," he answered with a trace of pride. The expression vanished when she said, "That is not our policy, Marcus, and I want you to stop talking to customers about this until the review is completed."
He bristled at the instruction. "Jennifer, you don't understand what kind of man came in here," he said, pointing toward David. "I know exactly what his type does." Jennifer regarded him for a long moment, her expression no longer concealing disappointment. "You are making this worse," she said. Marcus mistook the warning for concern that he might be sued and continued insisting that the check had been false.
Near the investment desk, Eleanor Price suddenly seemed less certain. She had heard the sergeant ask about verification, and she had watched Jennifer give instructions without praising Marcus. Her companion whispered that they should not have joined in, but Eleanor protested that they had relied on the manager's judgment. The companion answered that they had gone further than that: they had applauded a person being humiliated. Eleanor said nothing, and for the first time she avoided looking toward the leather chairs.
At 2:58, Jennifer received a message from the corporate secretary asking whether David would join the meeting remotely. She glanced toward him, and he shook his head almost imperceptibly before she could approach. He was not yet ready to end the confrontation with a private signal and a sudden change in everyone's manners. He wanted the record to establish what had happened while he was still just another customer to the people who had judged him. Jennifer understood enough of his expression to wait.
Marcus seized on the moment of apparent uncertainty. He told the sergeant that David had refused to identify himself, although the initial teller record already contained his full name and the manager had taken his wallet. Sarah corrected the statement immediately. "Mr. Williams provided identification before you approached," she said. Sergeant Brooks wrote that down as well, giving Sarah the first appreciative nod she had received in a difficult afternoon.
"Williams?" Marcus repeated, finally registering the surname he had ignored for twenty minutes. His brow furrowed for a moment, but the connection did not form. There were countless customers named Williams in Chicago, and the man seated beside the window looked nothing like the formal photographs of financial leaders Marcus occasionally glimpsed in annual reports. He preferred to believe that coincidence was on his side. By doing so, he committed himself more completely to a story that had already collapsed under scrutiny.