I wasn't. It's been vacant for 4 months, Carver said. Since the previous director left, when Ms. Whitmore took over, we've been conducting a search. He slid a document across the table. Andre looked at it but didn't pick it up.
That document is a preliminary offer letter. The position has been discussed as a formality. It was always going to be offered to you. What happened this morning accelerated the timeline. Andre looked at the document.
He looked at Richard. He looked at Clare. This isn't because of what happened today. He said it wasn't a question. No, Richard said.
The investigation identified your work months ago. The decision to offer you this position was made before this morning. Then why? Andre said. Was I not informed?
The room paused. Because Clare said, and her voice had something in it that Andre recognized as the specific difficulty of honest self-examination. The formal recommendation was routed through the COO's office for budget approval. She held his gaze. Robert buried it.
Andre sat back. Robert Caldwell had known for months from inside the investigation files he must have accessed somehow or simply from his own surveillance of Andre that Andre was being considered for a position that would give him formal authority over the very systems Robert was exploiting and so Robert had buried the offer kept Andre in his uniform in his role invisible and dismissible set him up as the fall guy while simultaneously making sure he never had the standing to be taken seriously as anything else. The scope of it was breathtaking. He was managing me, Andre said. Yes, Richard said.
For months. Yes, while I was trying to protect the building he was stealing from. Yes, Richard said. And that is something I will carry for a long time. He paused.
The question before us now is what you want to do. Andre looked at the offer letter. He didn't read it. He would read it later carefully. the way he read everything. Not fast, not impulsively, but thoroughly, turning it over until he understood all of it.
"I want to think about it," he said. Carver nodded. Richard nodded. Clare, who had been watching him throughout this exchange with the focused attention of someone trying to recalibrate their entire understanding of a person, said, "That's fair. I have a question first."