The investigation of the threatening email was presented next. IT's authenticated access history showed the message was sent through a marketing administrative session with credentials delegated for campaign support, not through Maya's usual devices or work location. The audit team had traced the source to a workstation used by Derek's staff. They could not prove the person at the keyboard from the login alone, but a separate corridor video showed Shenine entering the workspace shortly before the message was sent and leaving soon afterward.
"You told me the email proved she threatened you," Jamal said to Shenine.
"It came from her account. Somebody could have given her access."
"Maya was home. The access records show that."
"I don't know who used the account."
"Then you should have told me you didn't know," he replied.
Margaret moved the discussion forward. "We are not asking Mr. Hail to infer criminal guilt from an access log. We are asking why an employee was terminated without authenticating a disputed message after she specifically requested that verification."
Jamal lowered his head. "Because I accepted the accusation."
"And why did you accept it?"
He looked toward Shenine, then at Maya. "Because I trusted the wrong person more than the records."
Ellen did not soften at the admission. She remembered the sight of Maya carrying a plant toward the exit. A late acknowledgment could begin repairing the harm, but it could not make the walk to the bus shelter disappear.
The final file was thicker than all the others. It contained contracts, vendor registrations, bank-account summaries obtained through authorized corporate review, invoices, and approval records. An investigator explained that the sixteen questionable SM Creative invoices totaled four hundred thousand dollars. Of that amount, approximately two hundred sixty-four thousand had already been paid; the remaining one hundred thirty-six thousand had been frozen before release.
The corporation listed as SM Creative was controlled by Shenine Moore through an entity registered using her apartment address. Several billed services overlapped work done by Hail House employees or by unrelated vendors who had already been paid. Some supporting materials were duplicate presentations with changed file names. Others had no verifiable deliverables at all. Payments had been approved by Derek, often despite warnings from finance staff that the documentation was incomplete.
"This is a separate business relationship," Shenine said. "Consultants have personal addresses. That doesn't prove wrongdoing."
"Correct," Margaret replied. "Ownership alone would not prove fraud. The issue is the undisclosed conflict, the apparent absence of work, and the approvals that were entered using names of people who say they did not sign them."
The investigator displayed a row of handwritten signatures. Maya's name appeared on six approval pages. Jamal's appeared on several others. Derek's approval stamp was attached to the payment releases. The board sat quietly as forensic analysis showed inconsistencies between the signatures and authenticated samples.
"That isn't my signature," Maya said.
"I never signed those," Jamal added. "And I can verify where I was on some of those dates."
Shenine's voice grew thin. "You can't prove who did them."