He tried. I’ll give him that.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said. His voice was steady, but his hand had dropped to his side, and it was trembling. “Karen, I think you’ve been under a lot of stress. Maybe we should talk about this privately, tomorrow, after the board meeting.”
“There’s not going to be a private conversation, Richard,” I said. “There’s going to be a board meeting tomorrow at nine o’clock. And at that board meeting, the General Counsel is going to present a forensic audit of your division. It includes a pawn shop receipt from Gold Star Jewelry & Loan in Des Plaines, dated nine days after Flight 1188, for a Rolex sold for $11,500 cash. The seller’s name is Richard A. Haverford.”
Richard’s mouth opened and closed.
“It also includes a call log,” Marcus said calmly from behind me. “From extension 4410 to the O’Hare crew lounge at 5:58 p.m. Central tonight. Four minutes and eleven seconds.”
“And a statement,” I said, “from Ms. Ashford.”
Richard turned and saw Victoria standing next to the union rep.
For the first time, real fear crossed his face.
“Victoria,” he said. His voice changed and went soft and paternal, the voice I remembered from twelve years ago. “Victoria, whatever she’s told you…”
“She hasn’t told me anything, Richard,” Victoria said. Her voice shook, but she didn’t look away. “You told me. You called me tonight and told me there was a fraud in 1A, and that if I had her arrested on camera, you’d give me the supervisor job in LA. You said, ‘Make sure somebody films it.'” She swallowed. “I’m giving my statement to airport police tonight. With my union rep. Every word.”
Richard stared at her like he’d never seen her before.
David Reynolds stepped forward.
“Richard,” he said quietly. “Effective immediately, you’re suspended from all duties at Apex Air pending the outcome of tomorrow’s board meeting. You’ll surrender your corporate credentials, laptop, phone, and building access to Whitmore & Crane tonight. You’re not to contact any Apex Air employee, including Ms. Ashford, about anything related to this matter. Do you understand?”
One of the Whitmore & Crane attorneys held out his hand. After a long moment, Richard unclipped his Apex Air ID badge from his belt and handed it over. Then he handed over his phone, and his laptop bag.
He looked at me one more time.
“You don’t understand,” he said quietly. “I was thirty-six years old. I had a mortgage. Two kids in private school. My wife had just been laid off. Eleven thousand dollars…” He stopped. “It was one watch. It was one bad decision.”
“No, Richard,” I said. “The watch was one bad decision. Lying about me to the police was a second one. Telling corporate security I sold you the watch was a third. Letting me lose my job and my unemployment benefits, get blacklisted, and spend two years cleaning offices with my mother because no airline would hire me was a fourth.” I took a breath. “And calling a crew lounge tonight to have me arrested on camera so you could bury it all over again was a fifth.”
He didn’t answer.
“You didn’t make one bad decision, Richard,” I said. “You made the same decision over and over for twelve years. You decided someone else should pay for what you did.”
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