Chapter 5 - Fourteen Names
Richard Mercer asked to meet Claire at a coffee shop away from campus.
She nearly refused.
Then she remembered that refusing every imperfect ally was another way powerful systems survived.
Owen drove her.
He stayed at a table across the room with enough distance to provide privacy and enough visibility to satisfy his protective instincts.
Richard arrived alone.
“No lawyers?” Claire asked.
“Should I have brought one?”
“I don’t know yet.”
He sat opposite her.
“I owe you an apology.”
“For Tyler?”
“For more than Tyler.”
Claire waited.
Richard looked tired in a way wealth could not conceal.
“My son behaved disgracefully.”
“Yes.”
“I’m not going to defend it.”
“Good.”
“But I also need you to understand something. I never told Tyler I could change his grades.”
“I didn’t assume you had.”
His eyebrows rose.
“You didn’t?”
“I teach teenagers. They are capable of inventing their own arrogance.”
Despite himself, Richard smiled.
Then it disappeared.
“I asked Hale about the grade change.”
“What did he say?”
“That an administrator corrected a scoring irregularity.”
“There was no irregularity.”
“That’s what I told him.”
“And?”
“He said your exam contained questions outside the approved syllabus.”
Claire stared.
“That is false.”
“I suspected.”
“I can prove it. The syllabus was approved in August.”
“I’ve asked for the curriculum records.”
She studied him.
“You’re chairing the board that reviews my conduct.”
“Not anymore.”
Claire blinked.
“I recused myself this morning.”
“That was fast.”
“My son is involved. Anything else would be indefensible.”
That answer earned him a fraction of trust.
Richard lowered his voice.
“I also asked for the grade audit.”
Claire said nothing.
“Hale told me it would take several days.”
“It shouldn’t.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“My company uses the same vendor.”
Claire almost laughed at the absurdity.
Of course he knew.
Richard looked toward the window.
“When I donated to Westbridge, I told Hale I expected excellence.”
“That’s a common donor phrase.”
“I also told him I didn’t like surprises involving Tyler.”
Claire’s attention sharpened.
“What did you mean?”
“I meant discipline, academic problems, serious issues. I wanted to know what was happening with my son.”
“And how do you think Hale heard it?”
Richard did not answer.
That silence mattered.
Claire leaned forward.
“Tyler didn’t grow up believing your money entitled him to everything by accident.”
Richard’s jaw tightened.
“You think I don’t know that now?”
“I think knowing it after someone records him threatening an injured teacher is different from seeing how he learned it.”
His eyes hardened.
For a moment she thought he would leave.
Instead he nodded once.
“Fair.”
Claire had not expected that.
He continued.
“I paid for buildings. Programs. Scholarships. I also called when Tyler had problems.”
“How often?”
“Enough.”
“And did those problems disappear?”
Richard looked down at his coffee.
Claire had her answer.
Her phone vibrated.
Naomi Chen.
Claire excused herself and answered.
“Naomi?”
“I shouldn’t be doing this.”
“Then stop if you need to.”
“I found more.”
Claire glanced at Richard.
“How many?”
“Fourteen confirmed. Maybe twenty-one.”
“What years?”
“Three academic years.”
“Same account?”
“Not always.”
“Who else?”
Naomi hesitated.
“Two vice principals and the former dean of students.”
Claire felt the scope widening.
“Were they all donor children?”
“Twelve definitely. Two were athletes whose families weren’t major donors.”
“Can you preserve the data?”
“I already exported the audit history.”
Claire closed her eyes.
“Good.”
“But there’s something else.”
“What?”
“One of the grade-change forms has your signature.”
Claire sat straighter.
“That’s impossible.”
“It’s from last year.”
“Whose grade?”
“Landon Price.”
Claire remembered him.
Senior. Lacrosse captain. Father owned a construction company that had renovated the athletic center.
“What class?”
“Your Constitutional Law elective.”
“I gave Landon a B-minus.”
“The system shows it changed to an A.”
Claire’s pulse pounded.
“I never changed it.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Because the form says you approved it on March eighteenth.”
Claire remembered March eighteenth.
Her mother had been in surgery in Boston.
Claire had been absent from school.
“I wasn’t even in Connecticut.”
“I know.”
A cold wave passed through her.
“Naomi, do not access anything else from school unless it is within your normal duties.”
“Why?”
“Because if they fabricated my signature once, they can claim anything about what you’re doing now.”
Silence.
Then Naomi whispered, “Too late.”
Claire’s stomach dropped.
“What happened?”
“I got an email fifteen minutes ago.”
“From whom?”
“Human Resources.”
Claire already knew.
Naomi said it anyway.
“I’m suspended.”
The call ended.
Richard had heard enough to understand.
“What happened?”
Claire set down the phone.
“They suspended the registrar.”
“Why?”
“Probably because she found records they didn’t want found.”
Richard’s face went still.
Claire looked directly at him.
“You wanted to know what your money was buying?”
He did not answer.
She continued.
May you like
“It may have been buying silence.”
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