“Your access cards are canceled as of nine thirty this morning.

You’ll stay in this room until the authorities get here.”

Garrett sat in total silence in his high-backed chair as two uniformed police officers came into the boardroom doorway.

The officers snapped the first pair of steel cuffs on Garrett’s wrists before he reached the carpeted hallway.

Valerie stood behind him near the copier with her hands held out flat while the second deputy locked the metal around her right wrist, right over her thin gold ring.

The entire accounting department had stopped work.