Chapter 15: The Variance Sheet

Kip's email came at 8:02 on Wednesday morning, and the subject line was "Quick chat."

The body was one line.

My office, 9:00, just you.

I looked through the glass at Drake's desk.

He was reading his own phone, and his jaw had gone hard.

Kip had sent him the same email, and I knew it.

Kip's office is a corner room with a standing desk, a golf putter in a stand.

A photo of him shaking hands with a senator hung behind the desk.

He did not get up.

He waved me to the chair across from him and slid a stapled packet across the desk.

"Take a look," he said.

I looked.

It was a spreadsheet, printed in color, six pages.

The top line read VARIANCE Q4.

Under it were columns labeled Keeper, Leave Granted, Begging Events, Technical Disputes and Notes.

Every row had a date.

Row four said, in Drake's tidy typing, R held. Did not beg.

Row twelve said, Technical dispute: "please" as adjustment. Allowed.

My face went hot all the way to my hairline.

"It was on the shared drive," Kip said, with a regretful little shrug. "Anyone with senior access can open it."

"You went looking."

"I was running a budget report and it came up. It reads like a variance sheet, doesn't it? Plan against actual."

He tapped Row twelve with a very clean fingernail.

"I'm not here to judge. Two adults. Truly."

"Then why am I here?"

"Because HR would judge, Roz. And the board would."

"And a woman who has just lost her first Trail Review is in a very exposed spot."

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