Later, an employee named Jake Wilson asked if he could speak to her privately. He was twenty-seven, an accountant with a neat haircut and a permanent expression of concentration. Otis knew him from the basement vending machine, where he often arrived at six-thirty carrying a thermos and a stack of budget reports. They had talked about his student loans and the way he was teaching his little sister to prepare for college entrance exams.
"I didn't know you were the owner," he admitted when they sat in a small meeting room.
"Most people didn't."
"I thought the numbers looked wrong before the board meeting. Now they look worse."
He brought spreadsheets from his own assigned work, not restricted files taken from other departments. Certain consulting payments had been recorded under different budget categories even when the vendor descriptions appeared nearly identical. One payment was called process optimization, another plant transition support, and a third change management advisory. The invoices carried the same mailing address and referred to reports no one in the accounting group had seen.
"I asked Mr. Matthews what the deliverables were," Jake said. "He told me the expenses had executive approval and I should stay in my lane."
"How much?" Otis asked.
"Across what I can see, roughly nine million over eighteen months. I don't know if the work happened. I know our books should show what we paid for."
Otis studied him. "That's an important distinction. Don't accuse anyone of stealing until the evidence says they stole."
Jake nodded. He was relieved rather than disappointed. He had wanted someone to take the irregularities seriously without demanding that he become a detective overnight.
Judith directed him to the independent audit committee through a protected reporting channel established with outside counsel. He could identify records created in the ordinary course of his work and provide a statement of what he had seen. Digital preservation, forensic collection, and access to restricted financial systems would be handled by authorized specialists. Jake was not to take passwords, break into offices, or put himself in danger trying to prove something that experts could investigate lawfully.
"I was ready to work all night if I had to," he said.
"You may still have to work hard," Judith replied. "But you don't have to commit a crime to document one."
On Friday afternoon, Otis received a call from Patricia Wilson. The HR director spoke without her usual practiced coolness. She asked to meet at a modest restaurant across town, somewhere they would not be surrounded by people from Sterling. Otis considered refusing. The woman had participated in years of humiliation, and forgiveness was not an entitlement owed to anyone who suddenly found courage convenient.
She went anyway, bringing Judith.
Patricia looked startled when the lawyer sat beside Otis, but she recovered quickly. She described instructions Logan had given her concerning employee classifications and severance eligibility. Several workers close to retirement, she said, were being moved into categories that would reduce their benefits if the layoffs proceeded. A few employees who had previously complained about bias appeared disproportionately represented on a preliminary dismissal list.