Chapter 8 - THE FORTY-SIX MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION
The audit revealed a complicated network of transactions.
Money had moved through legitimate investment funds, consulting agreements, and companies with little visible business activity.
Some transfers had been authorized.
Others appeared to involve forged approvals.
The auditors identified forty-six million dollars in transactions requiring investigation.
Not all of it was missing.
But enough was unaccounted for to threaten the foundation's programs.
Vivien called an emergency meeting of the trustees.
She insisted that the investigation remain independent.
She also insisted that the foundation's beneficiaries be protected while the financial review continued.
One trustee asked, "Where will the money come from?"
Vivien looked at the budget.
"From the unrestricted reserve."
"That reserve was meant for expansion."
"Then expansion waits."
Another trustee frowned.
"We could suspend scholarship payments for one quarter."
Vivien shook her head.
"No."
"Donna, we have to be realistic."
"I am being realistic."
She opened a folder.
"These students have already enrolled. Families have already made medical decisions based on our commitments. We don't transfer the consequences of our failures to people with the least ability to absorb them."
The room went quiet.
Then Kanti, attending as an observer, nodded.
"She's right."
The trustees approved the emergency plan.
Later, Margaret approached Vivien.
"That was expensive."
Vivien smiled tiredly.
"Doing the right thing usually is."
Margaret hesitated.
"There's something else."
She handed Vivien a bank record.
A transfer of three million dollars had been made to a company controlled by Bernard Kessler.
The authorization appeared to bear Vivien's signature.
Vivien stared.
"I didn't sign this."
Margaret nodded.
"We know."
"Can you prove it?"
"We're working on it."
Vivien looked at the document again.
Then noticed something.
The signature was almost perfect.
Almost.
But whoever forged it had copied the way she signed her name twenty years earlier.
Before arthritis changed the angle of her final letter.
She looked up.
"Margaret."
May you like
"Yes?"
"Find out who had access to my old correspondence."
