He did not know everything that was about to unfold on that stage, not the personal part of it, but he knew the shape of it, and he knew it was right, and the small movement of his fingers across his cuff told me he had not lost his nerve.

Beside Malcolm stood two people most of the room would not have recognized, though they would come to understand their significance very soon: Cardinal’s general counsel, a composed woman with a thin black folder held against her chest, and the forensic accountant who had spent six weeks following a trail of payments through the company’s vendor accounts.

They were not there for the party.

They were there for what came after it.