The vote to authorize the audit was 5 to one. Craig abstaining after Patricia's reminder made his vote moot. Either way, Marcus was asked to wait in the anti- room while the board discussed next steps. He sat in a chair with his laptop closed on his knees and looked at the city through the window and thought about nothing in particular, which was something he'd gotten better at over the years. The skill of sitting in waiting rooms and not running the numbers over and over when there was nothing to add to the calculation.
Hartwell came out 20 minutes later. The audit is authorized. She said the HR complaint against you has been referred to outside review, which effectively removes it from the internal HR process. Fitch's attorney will be notified that the board is requesting a response to the recording. She paused.
Gold's going to advise Fitch not to provide one. You won't have to, Marcus said. The recording stands on its own. Yes, she said. It does.
She looked at him with the evaluative expression she'd had since Wednesday. You held that recording for two weeks. I needed to understand the full picture, he said. Most people would have used it immediately, she said. Or never used it at all.
You didn't have a response to that. She didn't seem to need one. Diane came out 4 minutes later. She closed the anti- room door behind her. The noise from the conference room, Patricia's voice.
Someone's chair scraping went muffled. She looked like someone who had just spent 3 hours in a room where she'd been the primary target and had come out the other side still standing, which was exactly what had happened. The audit will identify the leak, she said. Probably Craig's assistant, Marcus said. Or someone Craig asked to pull the files for him.
He didn't think it would come back because he didn't think Fitch would make a recorded call. No, she said he didn't think Fitch would do a lot of things he did. She looked at Marcus steadily. Thank you. Procurement policy, he said.
She looked at him for a moment. Stop doing that, she said. He looked back at her. Doing what? Flattening it.
She said, "What you did in there? What you've done for the past month? Flattening it to job description. He was quiet. I used your history without telling you." She said, "You found out and you stayed anyway.