Grant stared at him.
“What?”
“The certificates.”
“I know what you mean.”
“Then that’s my question.”
Grant leaned back.
“You spent your Christmas thinking about this?”
“Yes.”
“That’s unfortunate.”
Evan waited.
Grant’s eyes hardened.
“I don’t pay you to teach me how to run a company.”
Evan considered that.
Then answered:
“That’s exactly the problem.”
Grant’s face changed.
“Excuse me?”
“You didn’t pay me.”
Silence.
Not dramatic silence.
The small silence of one sentence landing exactly where it was aimed.
Grant stood.
“Get out of my office.”
Evan nodded.
“Okay.”
He left.
That was the final opportunity he gave Blackidge privately.
That afternoon, Evan prepared an envelope.
He included the Becket purchase agreement.
The lot issuance and expiration record.
A one-page factual summary.
Thirty-one known affected employees.
Departments.
No emotional language.
No accusation of fraud.
No demand.
No threat.
At the bottom, he wrote:
The enclosed third-party instruments were issued by Blackidge Systems as satisfaction of wage obligations on December 22. The issuer records indicate these instruments expired April 30 and were purchased subject to restrictions against use as employee wage compensation.
Then he addressed it to the independent accounting firm assisting with financial confirmation for the pending Indiana supply transaction.
The firm’s identity appeared in public transactional filings.
Evan drove to the post office on Brandt Pike.
Sent the envelope certified.
Kept the receipt.
Wrote the tracking number in his notebook.
Grant learned within two days that Evan had been collecting names.