Ridgeline's receivables swept nightly into a Delaware Treasury account. The Treasury account managed under contract by an entity with no employees. That entity's accounts directed by a nominee. And the nominee agreement signatory page projected onto the screen at the front of the room at a scale of about 4 feet across in Conrad's handwriting dated three years before he ever heard my name. There was a sound in that room that I will remember for the rest of my life which is the sound of 11 extremely composed people not making a sound.
Meredith Langford asked the auditors one question which was whether the signature and been against corporate filings and they said it had twice by two firms. Then she asked Conrad in a perfectly level voice to explain the divevestature proposal he had submitted to the finance committee in November regarding the Mid-Atlantic network and specifically the identity of the strategic buyer. He said the buyer's ownership was confidential. She said it was on page nine of the material in front of her. And then the last piece which was not mine at all.
The audit committee had subpoenaed the invoicing records of the media consultancy that had placed the photographs because tracing money is a habit. And once you start, you finish. The engagement had been paid for out of the same Delaware Treasury account. The story about me had been financed with the money stolen from the company he was accusing Viven of endangering. Meredith Langford closed her folder, looked down the table, and said that she would be withdrawing her support for the resolution and would be moving instead for Conrad's immediate suspension pending investigation.
It carried 9 to1 with one abstension. By 11:15, Conrad Whitmore was suspended from the board of directors of Sterling Atlas Group. His access revoked, the matter referred to outside council, and within a week to two federal agencies. The resolution to remove Viven as chief executive was never voted on. The independent review of my contracts was completed three weeks later and found that Avery Logistics had in the aggregate been paid 2.1% below the weighted market rate for comparable regional carriers, which is a sentence I have had framed, though I keep it in a drawer.
Viven did not celebrate. I watched her while the room emptied and refilled and general counsel talked about disclosure obligations and she did not smile once. She looked at me across that table with an expression I could not read at all and I began packing my binders back into the box because my part was finished and I had a 2-hour drive and a daughter who had a spelling test in the morning. I had come to hand over records. I had not asked her for anything and I did not intend to and I think that was the exact fact she was sitting there looking at.