Luis immediately pointed at him.
“Did you approve this?”
“No.”
“Did the board approve it?”
“No.”
“Then why are there guards taking candy from kids?”
Martin swallowed.
“Karen used discretionary safety funds.”
Rachel stared at him.
“Can she do that?”
Martin hesitated.
Priya snapped open her notebook.
“Don't hesitate in a room full of angry parents.”
“She can authorize limited safety expenditures.”
“How limited?” I asked.
“I don't know yet.”
Julie looked at him.
“She hired men to take candy from children, and you don't know how much she spent?”
Martin rubbed his forehead.
“I didn't know she would do this.”
Mrs. Bell spoke from her chair near the freezer.
“Martin, dear, everyone knew she would do something.”
That hurt because she said it kindly.
Martin sank onto a stool.
“I failed.”
Nobody argued.
The garage became silent.
Then Priya clicked her pen.
“Fine.”
Everyone looked at her.
“She got her official little shutdown.”
Luis leaned forward.
“What are you thinking?”
Priya wrote something at the top of her notebook.
OPERATION MIDNIGHT SUGAR
Rachel smiled for the first time that evening.
“That sounds illegal.”
“No,” Priya replied.
“It sounds memorable.”