Chapter 9
The emergency board meeting lasted five hours.
Garrett attended with counsel.
Diane waited outside.
Margaret sat across from her son-in-law and testified to the funding arrangement exactly as she remembered it.
She did not exaggerate.
She did not call Garrett a thief.
She admitted she signed documents without reading every page.
She admitted she agreed to anonymity.
She admitted she had hidden the truth from Evelyn.
That honesty made her credible.
Rebecca presented the withdrawn bank refinance and the later Lawson advisory fees.
Garrett’s attorney responded carefully.
The bank loan had only preliminary approval.
Margaret knowingly signed the packet.
Lawson Advisory had performed real work.
Nothing presented yet proved theft.
He was right.
Evelyn hated that.
But she needed truth more than a satisfying accusation.
The board voted to continue the independent review.
It also temporarily placed all major foundation disbursements under dual approval.
That delayed grants to three youth music programs.
By afternoon, two program directors were calling Evelyn directly.
Children had summer lessons scheduled.
Teachers expected contracts.
The scandal was now hurting people who had nothing to do with her marriage.
Garrett found her outside the boardroom.
“This is what I was trying to prevent.”
“You created the problem.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know you withdrew the bank financing.”
“Because the foundation was vulnerable.”
“And then you charged us to solve it.”
Garrett lowered his voice.
“You think this is about money?”
“What is it about?”
He looked toward the glass doors where older Vescari associates waited.
“Ask them what they called me before I married you.”
Evelyn said nothing.
Garrett continued.
“Ask how many meetings I entered as Garrett Lawson and left as Evelyn’s boyfriend.”
“That doesn’t justify this.”
“I didn’t say it did.”
“Then what are you saying?”
“That you’re searching for greed because greed would make this easier.”
He walked away.
Rebecca arrived ten minutes later.
“We found something.”
Evelyn followed her back inside.
A review of old sponsor receivables showed something odd.
During the month before the financial crisis, three major donor payments had been deliberately held instead of deposited.
Nearly nine hundred thousand dollars.
The person who instructed accounting to delay them had used Garrett’s authorization.
May you like
The foundation had not merely experienced a cash crisis.
Someone had made the crisis worse.
