Kyle supervised contracts for that distributor.

He also had direct access to some of the disputed databases.

The possible conflict was so obvious I wondered why nobody had acted sooner.

Then I remembered all the construction projects where a subcontractor’s reassuring smile had been treated as a substitute for an actual inspection.

Adams asked whether Rachel had ever described a disagreement with her brother.

I thought of the summer barbecue when Kyle had criticized her for being “too particular” about paperwork.

She had replied that paperwork was what proved a machine had been checked.