“I looked convincing.”
“You look seventy-seven and wet.”
“That too.”
Mercer held up his phone. “We have enough to justify expanding the review.”
“Not enough to accuse everyone,” Samuel said.
“No. But enough to preserve data tonight.”
Evelyn nodded. “Legal has already sent preservation notices to corporate IT and the payroll vendor. Grant won’t see them until the mirrored backups are secured.”
Samuel looked back through the rain-streaked window at the hotel. “Add procurement. Ryan Shaw is involved somehow.”
“We picked that up,” Mercer said. “You’ll want to hear the next recording.”
He played a segment captured outside Holloway’s office less than an hour earlier. Shaw’s voice came first.
“Forty-two this month.”
Holloway answered, “Good. Thank you, Ryan.”
“The linen supplier sent your cut. They want us to double the volume again next quarter.”
“Accounting will notice.”
“Accounting reports to you.”
A chair moved. Papers rustled.
Then Holloway said, “Book the yacht for the weekend. Charge it to client entertainment.”
Shaw laughed. “Which client?”
“Whichever one is least likely to ask.”
Samuel’s face became still.
Mercer paused the recording. “There’s more.”
“Play it.”
The voices resumed.
Shaw asked, “What do you want done about Rosa’s overtime before the board audit?”
“Erase the exceptions. Make the hours match budget.”
“That many edits will show.”
“Then make them gradually. Nobody reads housekeeping detail unless somebody complains.”
“They have complained.”
“And where did those complaints go?”
Silence.
Then both men laughed.
Evelyn stopped the recording.
Samuel looked at Mercer. “Can we establish chain of custody?”
“Yes. Original file is encrypted and time-stamped. We’ll corroborate with system records.”
“Good.”
Samuel did not smile. He had spent enough years around investigations to distrust the emotional satisfaction of one ugly recording. People said stupid things, exaggerated, joked badly, and lied about other people. What mattered was whether independent records told the same story.
“Start with the forty-two thousand,” he said. “Find out what it is.”