She turned toward Nia, who was waiting beside the presentation controls with Elaine Porter's preliminary audit summary. The applause stopped, and the room grew quiet again. Bradley saw the heading on the screen before the rest of the audience could read it: LAKESIDE ADVISORY — PAYMENT AND SERVICE VERIFICATION.
His face changed. The look was brief, but Loretta saw it clearly. It was not the embarrassed expression of a man who had been rude to the wrong visitor. It was the expression of someone realizing that a door he thought was locked had been open the entire time.
Nia brought the first slide onto the screen. It contained no photograph, no dramatic headline, and no accusation of theft. There were three columns, the first showing the amounts Belmont Row had paid, the second identifying the work those invoices claimed to cover, and the third listing the records the auditors had been able to locate. The largest number, $1,620,000, stood alone near the bottom, followed by a final unpaid request of $180,000.
"This is not a courtroom," Loretta told the employees. "And I am not asking you to decide anybody's guilt. I'm asking you to understand why an owner who has just bought a company must sometimes stop an announcement and ask whether the company's records can support the money it has spent."
Bradley recovered enough composure to step toward the microphone. "Lakeside runs strategy sessions here every Thursday," he said. "Everybody knows that. They're confidential executive sessions, and they're valuable. You don't see the value on a visitor register."
"Then let's begin with what the register can tell us," Loretta replied. "Hayley, would you please join us?"
Hayley stood near the side wall with her hands clasped in front of her. She looked like someone preparing to walk across a floor she had spent years keeping spotless, uncertain whether the floor would hold her weight. Teresa turned toward her and gave her an encouraging nod. Hayley reached the microphone and told the audience her name and role, then waited for Loretta's question.
"How many Thursday reservations were entered for Lakeside Advisory during the contract period?"
"Seventy-eight," Hayley answered. "Conference Room B, every Thursday morning. Ten attendees requested, coffee and pastries ordered."
"How many visitor badges were printed for people checking in under that company name?"
"None. Zero."
Loretta gave her time to continue. Hayley explained that she and Teresa had maintained the desk and visitor schedule during the entire period, that the reservations were made by Bradley's assistant, and that the room was normally cleared by noon without a single visitor having checked in. She acknowledged the limitations of her knowledge: perhaps a consultant had entered through another door, perhaps some work had been done remotely, but the weekly ten-person on-site sessions described on the invoices did not match what reception had observed. Her honesty about those limits made her statement more credible than an absolute claim could have been.