Chapter 13 - The Man Who Signed Twice
Jonah Pike had worked for the Brooks Foundation for fourteen years. He'd attended Emma's birthdays and sent her a book every Christmas. When Helen showed Grant the authorization, his face closed in a way Emma had never seen.
"Call Jonah," Grant said.
"Not until we've preserved the relevant records," Helen replied. "I'm not having him tidy up our mistakes first."
Grant agreed. He told his board there would be an independent financial review that included his own decisions. Two trustees protested that the publicity could endanger future donations.
"Then future donations are already in danger," he said.
Emma learned the details at dinner. Jonah had signed one approval for a legitimate emergency meal grant and another for a vendor-specific advance. The second document cited an exception no one on the program committee remembered voting on.
"So he stole it?" she asked.
"We know he approved something he should not have approved," Grant answered. "We don't know everything else."
At school, Principal Merritt held a staff meeting about respecting the ongoing inquiry. Teachers were discouraged from discussing "unverified allegations." Mrs. Alvarez, now represented by an attorney, asked for her employment records and the internal emails ordering cashier overrides.
Meanwhile Olivia avoided her usual table. She tried sitting with the yearbook staff, but nobody knew what to say to her. She stared at lunch she couldn't swallow.
Emma noticed but didn't walk over. Compassion, she was learning, did not require pretending nothing had happened.
After classes, Olivia waited by the auditorium doors with an envelope addressed to Ruiz.
"It's not from the safe," she said quickly. "It's a copy of a calendar entry."
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It showed a meeting scheduled two days before the cafeteria attack. Attendees: Charles Harper, Dana Merritt, Jonah Pike, and an outside public-relations consultant.
The meeting title was short: BROOKS STUDENT CONTAINMENT.
