Part 3
I did not sleep much.
By six the next morning, I had learned something important about suspicion.
It expands quickly if you let it.
Once you discover one hidden thing, every ordinary memory begins to look suspicious.
Every conversation becomes evidence.
Every kindness becomes strategy.
Every mistake becomes conspiracy.
That was dangerous.
Especially when dealing with people I had known for years.
So before I made a single call about Evelyn Hart, I wrote one sentence on a hotel notepad.
Find facts before assigning motives.
Joanne had done that.
Even when Brandon ignored her.
Even when Richard dismissed her.
Even after somebody used my name against her.
She had kept separating what she knew from what she believed.
I owed her the same discipline.
At seven, Margaret joined me in the conference room by video.
Our general counsel, Priya Desai, joined from Chicago.
Neither looked rested.
Priya adjusted her glasses.
“Start from the domain registration.”
Margaret shared the record.
“The recovery email belonged to Evelyn.”
“Could someone else have used it?”
“Yes.”
“Could the historical record be inaccurate?”
“Possible, but unlikely.”
“Does registration prove she sent the message to Joanne?”
“No.”
Priya nodded.
“Good. Then we have a lead, not a conclusion.”
Exactly.
I looked at Margaret.
“What access did Evelyn have three years ago?”
“Executive mailbox. Your calendar. Your correspondence archive. Certain corporate HR escalations.”
“Vendor approvals?”
“No.”
“Procurement?”
“No.”
“Operations?”
“Only through forwarded correspondence.”
Priya asked, “Could she redirect employee complaints?”
“Yes,” Margaret said. “That was part of her job. She categorized incoming mail.”
“To whom would a purchasing complaint go?”
“Usually procurement or operations.”
“Which explains why Joanne’s email reached Nathan,” I said.
Margaret nodded.
“What we need,” Priya said, “is the original forwarding trail.”
Margaret enlarged another screen.
May you like
“We have it.”
The original email had arrived at 10:13 on a Monday morning.
