The Tutor and the Senator's Widow novel · Chapter 17 of 24
Chapter 17: The Committee
The room for thesis proposals was on the third floor of the math building, with a whiteboard, a long table and a window that wouldn't open.
I wore my one blazer over my hoodie.
My advisor, a tall, tired woman who ate almonds from a sandwich bag, sat at the head of the table.
Next to her sat a man I'd never seen, in a navy suit with a pin on the lapel.
"The gentleman holds the Fitzhugh Chair in Applied Statistics," my advisor said. "He is joining us as an outside reader."
"Delighted," the outside reader said, without a smile.
I put down my slides.
"My question," I said, "is whether a person can detect fraud in a loan book from the amounts alone."
I clicked to a histogram.
"When people sign for money they aren't supposed to take, they stay under approval limits. So amounts pile up just below the line. I propose a simple test for that pile, using public data from three hundred pension plans."
"Public data," said the outside reader.
"Yes, sir."
"Not any particular plan's data."
"No, sir."
"I ask because I heard," he said, "you have a friend with a particular plan."
The room went very quiet.
My advisor stopped chewing.
"I do," I said.
"I'm not using it. It's not mine to use, and it would be a conflict of interest, so the thesis is about the method."
"But the method would work on that plan."
"It would work on any plan."
"Including one in which your friend has a financial interest and a personal one?"
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