Yes, to make sure that if I ever applied to any Brooks program again, I'd be routed away from standard processing. That's what it says and your emergency housing fund counted as a Brooks program. She didn't answer because she didn't need to. The answer was sitting on the table in front of both of them. Marcus folded the papers back into the envelope.
He pushed it back across the table to her. Then he sat back and looked at the ceiling for a moment and when he looked back down, something had settled in his face. Not peace, not relief, something harder and more purposeful than either of those. Gerald Pruitt, he said. Evelyn's expression shifted.
What about him? He's still there, Marcus said. It wasn't a question. He was promoted, she said quietly. Two years ago.
He's the chief operating officer now. The irony of that landed in the room like something dropped from a significant height. Of course he is, Marcus said. Mark, he runs operations, Marcus said. Which means he has access to financial disbursements, fund allocations, program budgets.
He looked at her. Evelyn. Who signed off on the emergency fund reports that said funds were exhausted? She went very still. He could see her brain working behind her eyes, running back through things she knew, cross-referencing against things she just said.
Operations, she said slowly. Who in operations? She looked at him. The blood had moved away from her face. Gerald, she said.
The word sat between them. Marcus nodded once. He picked up his coffee cup. It was empty. He set it back down.
I need you to do something for me, he said. And I need you to do it without telling anyone in that building. Not your assistant, not your board liaison, not your legal team. Nobody inside those walls. What do you need?
The full fund disbursement records, he said. Not the summaries you report to the board. The actual transaction records. Every transfer out of the emergency assistance fund for the last six years. Where the money went.
What accounts received it. Every single line. She looked at him. If I pull those records without going through normal channels, Gerald will know I'm looking. Then don't pull them through normal channels, he said.