The caution seemed to reassure Nina. "I have a copy of the message Harlon sent yesterday. It orders everyone not to talk about Mrs. Johnson. I also have my disciplinary warning. I can describe which files to examine."
"That is enough to start," Darius said. "You don't need to risk your job collecting more on your own."
Nina stared at the pavement. "My mother has arthritis. I pay part of her medical bills. If I lose my job, we won't manage for long.
But every time I see one of these customers leave, I think of her. She doesn't always understand the forms the pharmacy gives her. She trusts people to tell her what the words mean. I keep imagining her at this counter with someone like Harlon deciding she isn't worth explaining things to."
Loretta reached for her hand. "Being frightened doesn't make you a coward, child. It means you know there's something to lose."
"I should have stopped him."
"So should half the room. You tried, and he threatened you. What you choose to do now matters more than pretending you never felt scared."
Nina swallowed. "Then I'll speak. On the record."
A car alarm sounded somewhere across the lot, and she startled. Her break was almost over. Loretta squeezed her hand once before releasing it. Nina straightened her shoulders and walked back toward the side door. Darius watched until she disappeared inside, then sent a short message to Sarah Turner asking that the independent team's intake channel be prepared for an employee witness who required protection.
"She's a brave girl," Loretta said.
"She is."
"And she shouldn't have to be."
Darius looked at the bank sign shining above the parked cars. "No," he said. "She shouldn't." By Tuesday evening, Darius's hotel desk had disappeared beneath carefully labeled folders.
He had chosen a room near the regional office rather than the executive apartment available through the company. He wanted a quiet place to think and a little distance from the people who had spent years telling him what they believed he wanted to hear. The room had a view of a parking structure and a vending machine that hummed through the wall. It was an unremarkable headquarters for a problem that was becoming larger by the hour.
Sarah Turner joined him on a secure video call at seven fifteen. Behind her were two members of the audit team and Martin Torres, outside counsel retained by the board's audit committee. Martin was fifty, exacting, and known for interrupting executives who used the word urgent as though it were a substitute for the word authorized. Darius had chosen him precisely because Martin would not confuse the interests of a CEO's family with those of the institution or its customers.
"We have the first comparative review," Sarah began. "There are patterns worth investigating. In comparable transaction categories, older customers in several predominantly neighborhoods are being placed on manual hold at substantially higher rates. The supporting documentation for those holds is often missing."