Chapter 12 - The Bookkeeper Who Never Quit

David found Peter Keene that night.

Not in another city.

Not at a new job.

He was working maintenance for a property company owned by Vivian Sanders’s brother.

“That doesn’t sound like quitting,” Emma said.

“No,” David replied. “It sounds like reassignment.”

Peter refused to talk by phone.

Then Emma sent him a photo of the damaged pointe shoe.

He agreed to meet.

They chose a twenty-four-hour diner off the highway.

Peter Keene arrived at 1:15 a.m. wearing a baseball cap pulled low.

He looked terrified before he even sat down.

“I never touched that kid’s shoe.”

“Nobody said you did.”

“The maintenance tag has my name because Vivian still uses my old access account.”

David leaned forward. “Why does she have it?”

Peter rubbed both hands over his face.

“Because I gave it to her.”

Emma’s stomach dropped.

Peter had handled Brightwood’s accounting for four years. At first, Vivian asked for simple things: donor reports, tuition balances, which families were behind on fees.

Then she wanted competition score sheets.

Then passwords.

Then camera access.

“I told myself she was board chair,” Peter said. “I told myself it was administrative.”

“When did you know it wasn’t?” Emma asked.

He looked at her.

“When she asked me to change the timestamp on an injury report.”

Jenna.

Emma knew it immediately.

Peter nodded.

“Jenna’s accident happened at 6:42. Vivian wanted the record to show 7:05, after Brooke had already left.”

“Did you change it?”

“Yes.”

Emma wanted to hate him.

Instead she saw what frightened people looked like when they finally ran out of excuses.

“Why leave?”

“Because last December I found a second set of scholarship evaluations.”

“The blue ledger?”

“No. Digital files.”

David’s pen stopped.

“Where?”

Peter glanced around the diner.

“I copied them before they locked me out.”

Emma leaned in. “Do you still have them?”

Peter nodded.

Then the front windows exploded inward.

Everyone ducked.

A brick hit the floor and skidded under their table.

Taped to it was a printed photograph.

Emma picked it up.

It was Lily leaving school that afternoon.

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