Chapter 6 - DANIEL PARKER WASN'T CLEAN EITHER
Ethan wanted his father cleared.
Lena Morris warned him:
“You may not get the version you want.”
Ethan nodded.
Then hated her for being right.
Daniel's personal laptop had survived because Anna never threw it away.
Ethan had it.
He had not told anyone.
Walter stared when Ethan admitted it.
“You've had it all this time?”
“Since Mom died.”
“Why didn't you say something?”
Ethan looked at him.
“Because until yesterday, you were the man she blamed.”
Fair.
The laptop no longer booted.
A forensic technician recovered the drive.
The first bad fact:
Daniel had emailed himself Northstar spreadsheets.
The second:
He had used a personal account to discuss work with Julian Mercer three times.
Ethan stared at the messages.
Not client names.
Still too much.
One line:
If we unwind the aviation position this quarter, every distressed shop in Boston will smell it before lunch.
Julian replied:
Then don't unwind it.
Daniel:
Tell Bennett that.
Casual.
Stupid.
Potentially material.
Ethan looked sick.
“Dad knew Julian too?”
Richard answered:
“Everybody knew Julian.”
Boston finance was smaller than people pretended.
Daniel and Julian had overlapped at business school.
Not close friends.
Friendly enough to exchange messages.
Another recovered email:
Daniel to Anna.
I should never have sent Mercer anything. Tom will use that to make the rest look worse.
Ethan stopped.
“Tom.”
Thomas Hayes.
Daniel knew compliance had discovered the messages.
So did Anna.
Walter looked at Ethan.
“That is why the termination held.”
Ethan snapped:
“Don't.”
Walter stopped.
Good.
Lena explained.
Daniel's policy violations were serious.
He likely would have been fired even if the leak had been disproven.
But that was different from blaming him for the leak.
Two truths.
No slogan needed.
The recovered laptop also contained a draft letter Daniel never sent to Walter.
I broke your information rules because I thought working harder made me exempt from them. It didn't. But I did not give Kessler Rowe those pages.
Ethan read silently.
Then:
Ask Richard where he went after using my desk. Thomas already knows.
There.
Daniel was not an innocent employee framed from nothing.
He created vulnerabilities.
Discussed restricted strategy carelessly.
Used unauthorized technology.
Then when a larger disclosure occurred, those facts made him convenient.
Richard's conduct created another plausible route.
Thomas chose the route that preserved his son's future.
Walter chose the report that protected the firm fastest.
Anna chose Daniel.
Then left.
Ethan looked at his father's draft.
“Why didn't he send it?”
No one knew.
Then Walter asked:
“Ethan, why do you work here?”
The question sounded ordinary.
It was not.
Ethan looked at the recovered laptop.
Then at Walter.
“My résumé wasn't an accident.”
Walter went still.
“I applied because of them.”
“Your parents.”
“Yes.”
“I thought you said your mother didn't want you looking.”
“She didn't.”
“Then why?”
Ethan's jaw tightened.
“Because after she died, I found Dad's appeal note.”
The one he carried in his wallet.
Walter waited.
Ethan continued.
“I wanted access to the company archive.”
Dana's expression changed.
“What did you do?”
Ethan looked at her.
“I searched it.”
The room became silent.
May you like
The kind young junior employee from the lobby had entered Bennett Alder for a reason of his own.
And he had not told the whole truth either.
