"Some of them, with partners and other shareholders. I started the business."
Abigail considered him. "Then why didn't you make sure the cars were safe?"
The question was so direct that Claire looked horrified. "Abby—"
Nathaniel raised a hand gently. "It's a fair question."
He crouched slightly so he could meet the girl's eyes without standing over her.
"I thought the people I appointed were doing the right checks," he said. "I didn't ask enough questions myself. That's part of why we're looking into everything now."
Abigail nodded, dissatisfied but apparently willing to accept the truth.
"My mom says people should check their work," she said. "Even if they're the boss."
Nathaniel laughed. "Your mom sounds very wise."
"She is. But she always burns toast."
Claire groaned. Sofia laughed. For a moment the weight of the past week lifted from the porch.
Before leaving, Nathaniel noticed the observatory map on the kitchen table. Abigail told him about her favorite constellations and the upcoming meteor shower. He listened with genuine curiosity and admitted that he could identify only the Big Dipper without help. When she pointed out three other patterns on the map, he asked questions until she was explaining them with her whole face lit by enthusiasm.
Later, in the truck, Sofia said, "You didn't offer to buy her a telescope."
Nathaniel looked puzzled. "Why would I?"
"Because that's what rich people do in stories like this."
He chuckled. "I wasn't there to make a story about myself. Her family needs a fair resolution to a serious problem. If she wants a telescope, I hope somebody who knows her better than I do can choose the right one."
Sofia smiled. "Rose would have said that."
Nathaniel turned toward the road. "Rose would have told me to stop making promises and start making phone calls."
"Then she'd approve of your afternoon."
He hoped so.
Back at headquarters, Julian was discovering how profoundly the company's reporting structure had failed him. A young analyst named Priya Singh, who had once been assigned to inventory control and later moved into accounting, arrived with a spreadsheet showing transfers between dealerships. She had built it in her spare time after repeatedly finding that vehicle locations in the system differed from the physical inventory counts. Her manager had told her the discrepancies resulted from temporary entries and should be ignored. Priya had asked for an explanation and been instructed to stop complicating quarter-end reporting.
Julian sat across from her, Helen Ward beside him.
"How long have you been tracking this?" he asked.
"Eleven months," Priya said.
"Why didn't you bring it to me?"
She looked directly at him. "I tried. I sent it through the compliance mailbox."
Julian went still. "When?"
She named a date. Julian searched his memory. He had been in London that week, negotiating an acquisition. The compliance summary he received afterward included no mention of inventory concerns.
"What happened to your report?" Helen asked.
"It was marked closed. I was told someone had explained the discrepancies. Nobody told me what the explanation was."
Julian felt a deep embarrassment that no apology could immediately repair. He had spent months praising the effectiveness of the company's anonymous reporting system. At executive meetings, green indicators assured him that concerns were being investigated and resolved. He had never asked a randomly selected employee whether the green indicators corresponded to anything real.
"I'm sorry," he said.
Priya looked skeptical. "For what?"
"For building a system in which somebody could close your report without answering your question."
She studied him for a long moment. "I didn't want trouble. I wanted the numbers to make sense."
"So do I," Julian said. "Will you help us understand them?"
Priya glanced at Helen, who assured her the team would document her cooperation and protect against retaliation within the procedures available. Then she opened her spreadsheet.
The data revealed that many anomalies involved the same three subsidiary accounts. Several vehicle identifiers appeared in financing schedules after the associated cars had been transferred or sold. There were mismatches between transfer dates and recorded valuations. Some entries showed repeated movement between branches without matching transport expenses. Priya had flagged them as questions, not conclusions, and she was careful to distinguish records she had verified from those she could not.
Julian listened in disbelief. He recognized some of the subsidiaries from a board presentation Victor had delivered the previous spring. They had been described as efficient financing vehicles, a phrase that sounded reasonable until one asked what, precisely, they financed.
When Priya left, Julian put both hands against his face.
"I approved the overall structure," he said.
Helen nodded. "Your approval matters. But we still need to establish what you knew and what others represented to you. Don't confuse responsibility to fix a system with assuming facts we haven't proved."
"I should have read more."
"Yes."
"I should have asked more."
"Yes."
Julian laughed bitterly. "You don't make people feel better, do you?"
"I'm not here to make you feel better. I'm here to help you do better."