Her assistant Gertrude appeared at the door. “Anderson is on the phone. He says it’s urgent.”

A reprieve.

Audrey said, “I have to take this call.” She should ask Gertrude to say she had a call whenever Malaburn was in her office. Not that Gertrude would ever agree—she was too deferential to the partners.

He stood. “I’ll call you later.” As he closed the door, he said, “I’d suggest you take down the papers and give them to your assistant to input quickly.”

She picked up the call from Anderson, the partner in charge of the Popflicks case. The Popflicks general counsel had requested her—not Tim—as the senior associate to run the case. Anderson looked forward to working with her on it.

“I’m thrilled. It’s my dream case,” she said to Anderson over the phone, and she meant it. Tim must be disappointed.

She called the assignment partner. He was out on vacation, so she left a message. Of all the times for him to be away. She shouldn’t worry yet; he was sure to check messages and call her back. She finished the engagement letter, sent it off to Anderson, input all her changes from the wet papers, and then reviewed two associate memos, giving comments.

Now to write a memo about their recent document pull at the Hen Bank offices where John Rothman worked. Minus the details about the gym bag she’d shared with Eve. They had been hoping to find a written authorization signed by Pierre allowing Rothman to trade in the account. They had not.

She stared out her window, up at the blue sky with just a few patches of clouds, biting a nail. She had a hunch, but she needed to speak to the Hen Bank compliance officer to confirm it. She called Genevieve, Hen Bank’s in-house counsel, explained her theory, and Genevieve patched in the compliance officer.

Audrey asked, “If a written authorization allows a broker like Rothman to trade in an account, what procedures are followed? Is there any follow-up by the compliance office to make sure the trading is within the approved boundaries and not fraudulent?”

“Yes,” said the compliance officer, explaining how those accounts had a higher level of supervision that involved certain sign-offs on the order tickets.

That made sense. They were not just going to let those “masters of the universe” trade willy-nilly without anyone looking over their shoulders.