"Do you believe Adrian Cole stole money?"
"I don't know."
"Do you believe Leonard Price falsified records?"
"I don't know."
"Do you believe Victor Hale created the Northbridge structure to conceal improper transactions?"
"I don't know."
Bellamy nodded.
"Those are good answers."
Evelyn frowned. "They don't sound particularly useful."
"They are more useful than certainty unsupported by evidence."
He opened a notebook.
"Our firm has been asked to examine certain payment categories and approval procedures. We are not investigating your personal dispute with Mr. Cole. We are not here to determine whether your dismissal was fair. Our responsibility is to establish what the available financial records show."
"Will you have access to the original approvals?"
"If the company provides them."
"And if it doesn't?"
"Then our findings will identify the limitations."
Evelyn leaned forward.
"Some payments appear to have been approved under delegated permissions. Could those permissions have been used without the account holder's knowledge?"
"Technically, depending on the system design, yes. But we would need to establish what permissions existed, who had access, how the system recorded activity, and whether the approvals were properly authorized."
"Could someone make it look as though I approved a transaction?"
Bellamy paused.
"Many systems can record an action under a user account. That alone does not establish who physically performed it, whether the action was authorized, or whether the record was altered. We would need audit logs, access records, and corroborating evidence."
Evelyn felt a chill.
She remembered receiving approval requests late at night. During the final months before her departure, she had been overwhelmed by acquisition negotiations and personal problems. Several requests had arrived with assurances that the underlying documents were already available in the system.
Had she approved something without reviewing it?
She refused to dismiss the possibility simply because it frightened her.
"Could I have approved one of those payments?" she asked.
"Possibly. We cannot answer that yet."
The honesty unsettled her more than a confident denial would have.
Bellamy continued. "We need one thing from you before we proceed."
"What?"
"If you possess records that may be relevant, they must be provided through your counsel with a clear account of their origin. We cannot rely on screenshots with no context or documents whose authenticity cannot be established."
"Understood."
"And you must not attempt to obtain additional company records through former colleagues."
"I've already told them that."
"Good. People often damage their own credibility by trying to prove a suspicion before they understand the evidence."
When the meeting ended, Evelyn walked outside with Rachel.
"You think they can find something?" she asked.
Rachel adjusted the strap of her bag.
"I think they can establish what happened if they receive complete records and remain independent."
"That isn't the same as saying they will."
"No," Rachel replied. "It isn't."
Evelyn looked across the street at the river, its surface broken by the wake of passing boats.
For weeks, she had imagined that one decisive document would clear her name. A signature that wasn't hers. An email exposing Adrian's intentions. A transfer that could only have been made for one reason.
But the truth might not be contained in a single dramatic discovery.
It might lie in hundreds of small decisions, each one defensible in isolation, that together created a pattern no one had wanted to examine.
For the first time, Evelyn understood that the investigation might reveal uncomfortable facts about her own conduct, too.
She would have to face them if she wanted the truth.
Even if the truth was not entirely on her side.
Laura Bennett agreed to meet Evelyn at a small café near the old railway station.
She arrived ten minutes early, carrying a worn leather folder beneath one arm. Her hair was shorter than in the photograph, and a faint scar crossed the side of her chin.
She looked like someone who had learned to be cautious without allowing caution to consume her.
"You're not what I expected," Laura said.
"What did you expect?"
"Someone who would arrive with accusations."
"I've learned that accusations are easy to make."
Laura gave a small, humorless smile.
"That lesson cost me my career."
They ordered coffee and sat near the window.
Laura explained that she had worked as a project architect for a company that Hartwell acquired in 2014. During the transition, she was asked to certify several schedules connected to redevelopment costs.
The figures did not match the supporting invoices.