No envelope, no intermediary. Watched her lock it in the small fireproof cabinet behind her desk. She'll have it tonight, Pria said. Thank you. He was back at his desk by 3:40.
He answered four emails. He reviewed a staffing report. He ate a granola bar from the second drawer on the right, which was where he kept granola bars and also a small notepad that nobody had ever asked about on which he had been keeping a handwritten log dates, times, observations since the Tuesday morning that Raymond Voss had called him in for a conversation about formatting errors. He logged today's entries. The 9:15 message from Paul.
The 9:45 meeting. The 1:45 session with Amelia. Paul's statement. The timeline was clean, detailed, and in his own handwriting in a physical notebook that could not be edited after the fact. At 4:55, Raymond Voss appeared in his doorway, not walking past, not pausing midstride, standing, knocking once on the open door with his knuckle.
Hey, got a sec? Marcus looked up from his screen. Easy, unhurried. Sure. Raymond came in but didn't sit.
This was different from Monday's meeting in his own office where at least he'd gone through the performance of making it look collaborative. Here, standing in Marcus' doorway with his hands in his pockets. He looked like what he actually was, a man delivering a message someone else had composed. Heard the Q3 review got moved to Tuesday, Raymond said. Scheduling thing," Marcus said.
"Wednesday had a conflict." "Right," Raymond nodded, looked at the credenza, looked back. "I also heard you might be presenting." "That's right. Anything I should be looped in on before that as your supervisor, I mean, normally those upward presentations flow through me first." And there it was. Marcus had been expecting something. He hadn't known exactly what shape it would take, but here was the shape wrapped in the language of process and organizational protocol, dressed up in reasonable sounding managerial concern, wielding the word supervisor like a hand placed on a shoulder that wants to look friendly, but is actually checking whether you'll flinch.
He didn't flinch. It's operational cost analysis, Marcus said. Routine Q3 material. I've got it well in hand, he paused. Let one beat of silence sit between them, then added, "I can send you an overview if you want, but I figured you were busy with the meridian follow-up." Raymond wasn't busy with the Meridian follow-up.
Marcus had no particular reason to believe Raymond was busy with anything specific. He said it because mentioning Meridian, the contract that had also run through the Henderson adjacent reporting chain, was the equivalent of placing a card on the table face up, not playing it, just setting it where it could be seen. Raymon's expression didn't change. But his hands in his pockets shifted slightly. No, that's fine, Raymon said.
Just wanted to check in. Keep me posted. Of course, Marcus said. Raymond left. Marcus turned back to his screen.