Chapter 14 - The Price of Keeping Quiet
Peter set the box on my dining table and stared at it as if it might bite him.
"I kept copies," he said. "I told myself I'd need them when everything finally balanced."
Inside were payments for a pool gate alarm, two lifeguard stations and children's safety signage. The checks had cleared. No equipment had been installed. Several invoices came from an event company run by Vivian's brother.
"You let this go on?" I asked.
"At first I thought the contractor was late. Then Vivian said she'd move funds back after the annual gala. I was afraid the center would close if the donors found out."
"So you let kids walk past a broken gate."
He flinched. "I didn't know the chime was disabled during events."
"You knew the repair wasn't finished."
He couldn't argue. Neither could I pretend that my own careless signature had nothing to do with it.
We photographed the records and delivered the originals to Detective Shah against a signed inventory. Peter agreed to give a statement about every transfer he had approved. She warned him that cooperation would not erase his responsibility.
Vivian called while we were leaving the station.
"You are destroying the place Anna loved," she said.
"Anna loved the kids who came there."
"Do you think people will thank you when the pool closes? Children will lose lessons. Staff will lose jobs. All because one little girl wandered where she shouldn't."
I could hear party music behind her. Even now, she was preparing for the next donor dinner.
"One little girl is my daughter," I said. "And Nora told you this could happen."
"If you go public with those invoices, I will go public with your approval."
"I already gave it to the police."
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For the first time since the accident, Vivian had nothing to say.
A minute after she hung up, the center's official page announced that Nora had been terminated for "unsafe physical contact with a minor."
