Bradley reached for the microphone again. "This is a public ambush," he said. "You're destroying reputations in front of employees. I won't answer another question without my lawyer."
"You have every right to a lawyer," Loretta answered. "You also have every responsibility that comes with having signed and requested company payments. The independent review will continue, whether or not you answer questions today."
Patricia stepped forward with the ownership committee's formal decision. She explained that Bradley's nomination for chief executive had been withdrawn. The committee had also determined, based on the documented misuse of managerial authority, violations of company employment standards, and serious failures of financial controls within his department, that his employment was being terminated for cause, subject to the company's applicable procedures and the preservation of his rights. It was a corporate decision, she emphasized, not a criminal verdict.
"We will name a permanent chief executive when the audit is complete," Loretta said. "Until then, I will direct the ownership transition and work with the independent operating team to keep the company open. Payroll continues. Client services continue. Nobody here is being asked to pay for decisions they did not make."
The announcement did not produce the thunderous applause Bradley had imagined receiving for his promotion. People were too stunned, and some were frightened of what an investigation might reveal about their own departments. Loretta did not try to turn the moment into a celebration. She had seen businesses collapse when employees lost confidence in the ordinary reliability of a paycheck, and the last thing she wanted was to make them feel that their livelihoods were props in a performance of personal vengeance.
Bradley approached her at the side of the stage. His voice had lowered, and the man who had threatened to have her carried out of the lobby now seemed almost desperate to find a private room. "Give me ten minutes," he said. "In private. I can explain all of it."
Loretta looked at him with the same expression she had worn when he told her to sit and wait. "You had my forty-five minutes," she said. "Everything you did with them is on this page. And your business records will be examined by people whose job is to read every page, not to take either your word or mine for it."
Bradley stared at the notebook. For an instant he seemed to hate that plain spiral binding more than the large presentation screen or the audit team. A few sentences written by a woman he had dismissed as unimportant had become the one account he could not explain away as a misunderstanding about his title. He opened his mouth, then closed it again.
At the back of the hall, Nia looked down at her phone. The county district attorney's office had confirmed that two investigators were now waiting in the lobby with a judicially authorized search warrant for specified company records and devices. The warrant had been obtained through the independent inquiry that followed Harbor Gate's referral, not because Loretta had called in a favor. She sent a brief message to the front desk requesting that the officers be received professionally and directed to the authorized contact.