Chapter 4 - The Maid Who Walked Into the Boardroom
At 9:00 the following morning, Salvatore Bianchi entered the Santoro estate expecting his usual Saturday meeting.
Instead, he found Tessa Jenkins sitting at the head of the conference table.
She wore her gray housekeeping uniform.
Her father's notebook rested in front of her.
Leo stood beside the windows.
Two attorneys occupied the remaining chairs.
Sal stopped.
“What is this?”
Tessa looked up.
“Good morning, Mr. Bianchi.”
The older man recovered quickly.
“I assume you've finished your cleaning duties.”
Leo turned.
“Sit down, Sal.”
Sal smiled thinly.
“Leo, surely we don't need to discuss business in front of the help.”
Tessa opened the notebook.
“That's funny. My father said almost the same thing about you.”
Sal's smile disappeared.
She pushed a copy of the inspection report across the table.
“Fourteen months ago, Arthur Jenkins inspected the western wing at Hawthorne Care. He rejected the building because it failed several safety requirements.”
Sal barely glanced at the page.
“Your father was mistaken.”
“Then you won't mind showing us the corrected report.”
“I don't carry inspection reports around in my pocket.”
Leo's attorney, Caroline Mercer, opened her laptop.
“We requested the city's records this morning. The official approval appears to have been submitted two weeks after Mr. Jenkins suffered his stroke.”
Sal looked toward Leo.
“Are we really entertaining accusations from a housekeeper?”
Leo's jaw tightened.
“We're examining documents.”
Tessa leaned forward.
“Did you offer my father money?”
“No.”
“Did you send anyone to see him after he rejected the inspection?”
“No.”
“Did you authorize the changes to the western wing?”
Sal looked toward Caroline.
“Is this some kind of interrogation?”
“No,” Caroline replied. “It's a meeting concerning your authority over foundation funds. You're welcome to leave. But your access to those funds is suspended pending an independent investigation.”
Sal's eyes flashed.
Leo slid a document across the table.
His signature was already on it.
Sal read the first paragraph.
“You can't do this.”
“I just did,” Leo said.
For the first time, the older man's polished composure cracked.
“You don't understand what you're interfering with.”
Tessa spoke quietly.
“Then explain it.”
Sal stood.
“Your father should've minded his own business.”
Silence settled over the room.
Leo moved away from the window.
“What did you say?”
Sal straightened his cuffs.
“Nothing. I misspoke.”
He walked out without another word.
Tessa waited until the doors closed.
Then she turned to Caroline.
“Was that useful?”
The attorney nodded.
“It gives us a reason to look closely at his involvement. It isn't proof of a crime.”
“I know,” Tessa said.
She understood the difference between suspicion and evidence.
Her father had taught her that.
Never accuse somebody of cutting corners unless you could show them the missing bolts.
After the meeting, Leo followed her into the library.
“You handled him well.”
Tessa picked up the cleaning cart she'd left beside the door.
“I wasn't trying to impress anybody.”
“I know.”
She started polishing a bookshelf.
Leo watched for a moment.
Then he spoke.
“You can stop working.”
Tessa turned.
“Excuse me?”
“Take paid leave. As long as you need. Your father needs you.”
Her expression closed.
“I didn't ask for charity.”
“It's not charity. You've earned it.”
“That's not what worries me.”
“Then what does?”
Tessa set down the cloth.
“I can't investigate your business while depending on your paycheck. And I can't figure out whether I trust you while you're signing that paycheck.”
Leo absorbed the words.
“What do you want?”
She had been thinking about that question all night.
“I want to resign.”
His face changed.
“Tessa—”
“Don't.”
He stopped.
She continued.
“I want my final wages. I want the unused vacation pay the agency owes me. And I want to walk out of this house without anybody treating it like betrayal.”
Leo looked away.
For a long moment, he seemed to be struggling with something.
Then he nodded.
“You'll have everything you're owed.”
“And I want a copy of the visitor logs from Hawthorne.”
“Caroline can request them through the proper channels.”
“Good.”
Tessa almost smiled.
Leo noticed.
“Was that a test?”
“Partly.”
“Did I pass?”
“Don't get ahead of yourself.”
His mouth moved into the faintest smile.
It vanished when his phone rang.
Caroline was calling from the conference room.
She had found something.
The foundation's payment records showed an unfamiliar consulting company receiving nearly four million dollars over three years.
The company's address belonged to an abandoned office building.
And its registered director was Maureen Pike's brother.
Tessa followed Leo back into the conference room.
Caroline enlarged an invoice.
“Hawthorne paid this company for safety renovations.”
Tessa examined the description.
“Generator replacement. Emergency door upgrades. Elevator rehabilitation.”
All the work her father had marked as incomplete.
Leo looked at Caroline.
“Did anybody verify the invoices?”
“Sal signed the approvals.”
Tessa stared at the screen.
Four million dollars.
Residents living behind broken fire doors.
Nurses working overtime.
Her father fighting for therapy sessions that were supposedly too expensive.
For the first time, the theft felt bigger than money.
It had been taken from people who couldn't afford to lose anything.
Caroline scrolled down.
“The consulting company has another client.”
She paused.
“An investment partnership preparing to purchase Hawthorne next week.”
Leo leaned forward.
“Who owns the partnership?”
Caroline opened the corporate registration.
Her expression changed.
“Leo.”
“What?”
She turned the laptop toward him.
The registration listed two controlling partners.
Salvatore Bianchi.
And Leo Santoro.
Tessa slowly looked up.
Leo's face had gone white.
“I never signed that.”
Caroline studied the electronic document.
“Your signature is on the filing.”
Tessa stood.
She had wanted proof.
Now there was a document linking the man she was beginning to trust to the scheme threatening her father.
May you like
“Tell me something, Leo,” she whispered.
“Is this another thing you didn't know?”
