But you have an idea. He was quiet for a moment. I think, he said slowly, that we just made a very significant mistake. Cynthia looked back toward the elevator. We didn't do anything, she said.
Amanda did. Victoria did. Amanda and Victoria work here, Derek said. And none of us said a word. The silence that followed that statement was a different kind than the one after Caleb walked out.
This one had weight in it. On the executive floor, Victoria Harrington was standing at the window of her office. She had come up here after returning from the fourth floor, which was something she rarely did in the middle of a workday. Her office was for strategy, for calls, for the controlled environment of high-stakes decision-making. She didn't retreat here to think she came here to execute.
But right now, she was standing at the window. She had watched the convoy arrive from above. The way you watch a thunderstorm coming in from a distance, aware that it's moving toward you, unable to fully believe the scale of it until it's already overhead. She had recognized Richard Coleman immediately. She had watched him walk past the entrance and move toward the man on the sidewalk.
And she had watched the moment when Richard lowered his head, and she had stood very still at her window for a long time after that. Her assistant, a sharp and perceptive young woman named Kelsey, had come in twice. The first time, Victoria had dismissed her with a single gesture. The second time, Kelsey had come in and simply said, "They're on their way up." Victoria hadn't turned from the window.
"Who is he?" She asked. Kelsey was quiet for a fraction too long. "Kelsey, I've been trying to find out." Kelsey said, "The name Caleb Thompson pulls up limited public records.
He went through the standard hiring process, application, background check, HR interview with Amanda." But but I called the legal department, Kelsey said, and they wouldn't tell me anything. They said to refer any questions about Caleb Thompson to the board's counsel. The board's council. Victoria finally turned from the window.
The board's council? She repeated. Yes. Not our legal department. The boards?