Chapter 9 - THE OTHER WOMAN
The next morning, Grant provided investigators with a detailed statement.
He disclosed the payments he'd received, the conversations he'd had with Peter, and the circumstances surrounding his relationship with Serena.
He also agreed to provide access to relevant communications.
I didn't forgive him.
But I appreciated that, for the first time, he was helping establish the truth rather than conceal it.
Later that afternoon, Miriam contacted me about another woman connected to Peter's company.
Her name was Allison Reed, a former financial administrator who had worked with Sterling Clinical Solutions.
Allison had resigned eighteen months earlier.
According to the preliminary information, she had raised concerns about duplicate invoices and missing delivery records.
Shortly afterward, she had been accused of mishandling company funds.
The accusation had damaged her reputation and forced her to leave the industry.
I wondered whether she had been framed.
Miriam arranged for Allison's attorney to contact the investigators.
Within days, Allison agreed to provide records she had preserved before leaving the company.
Her documents showed that several invoices had been submitted more than once under different reference numbers.
Some payments had gone to shell companies.
Others had been routed through consulting firms with no apparent business operations.
One of those firms was Vale Medical Consulting.
Another was associated with Peter's brother.
The scheme was larger than we'd suspected.
Allison also provided an email in which Peter instructed her to remove a particular attachment from a procurement report.
The attachment contained evidence that the hospital had never received equipment it had already paid for.
Laura Bennett had discovered the same discrepancy.
Allison had tried to report it.
Both women had been silenced in different ways.
I felt grief settle heavily in my chest.
Laura had died before she could see the truth brought to light.
Allison had lost her career because she refused to ignore it.
And I had been so focused on surgery, research, and saving patients that I'd assumed the administrative systems around me were working as they should.
I wasn't responsible for other people's dishonesty.
But I could help ensure that it was no longer hidden.
The hospital commissioned an external audit and notified the appropriate authorities.
Then Allison sent Miriam one final file.
It contained a spreadsheet tracking payments to several individuals.
My name appeared beside a line labeled "executive protection."
The amount was $500,000.
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I had never received it.
And the recipient account belonged to someone who worked inside Harrington.
