Chapter 15 - The Laptop
Malcolm wanted to chase Victor. Andrea stopped him. "Let security do its job," she said. "You have a daughter waiting at home."
Victor was stopped at the service gate because the venue had a policy requiring staff equipment to be checked out. He told security he was collecting a personal laptop. They allowed him to leave with it after documenting the exchange; they could not lawfully seize property just because the evening had become ugly.
But Victor had forgotten something. At the tech desk, a rental drive still held the version of Sloane's slideshow sent for rehearsal. The AV manager preserved a copy after Celia requested it for the audit and confirmed it belonged to the foundation presentation materials.
The slides showed photographs of children paired with false captions claiming they had been rescued from neglect. In several cases, private release forms had been pasted into a single approval sheet. Elsie's mother's signature appeared beneath wording she said she had never seen.
Celia was pale when she told Malcolm. "I built a charity because I wanted families to trust us. I let a polished fundraiser tell me that questions were disloyal."
"Then ask them now," Malcolm answered.
Police would assess possible document offenses. The board would examine whether donor money had been misused. Neither investigation happened in a single dramatic speech, and I was grateful. Real accountability requires paperwork, witnesses, and time.
At home, Maya heard the news about the gala and asked whether Elsie had done something wrong.
"No," Malcolm told her. "Some adults tried to make children say things for them. Other adults stopped it."
She was quiet a long time. "Does Mommy know that?"
"I think she does."
Then Maya reached beneath her pillow and pulled out a tiny strip of paper. On it, in blue crayon, she'd written a number.
May you like
"Grandpa said if the bird stopped singing, call this," she whispered.
The number was my late husband's old voicemail line.
