He looked terrifying.
A giant man with a shaved head and tattoos covering nearly every visible inch of his arms.
But when an eight-year-old patient asked whether the skull on his wrist was real, Hammer crouched down and said, “No, buddy. It's just somebody's drawing.”
The child laughed.
Emma did too.
She quickly discovered that Hammer was gentler with children than many men who appeared far more respectable.
He brought craft supplies.
Paid for materials anonymously.
And refused to let the club use photographs of hospitalized children for publicity without the appropriate family permissions.
Emma respected him.
She also respected the club's volunteers.
But the financial reports began troubling her.
The first discrepancy was small.
A contractor charged for a shipment of sensory garden equipment that had not yet arrived.
Emma assumed it was a timing problem.
She contacted the supplier.
The supplier claimed the materials had been delivered.
The hospital's receiving records said otherwise.
Emma asked for documentation.
A new invoice arrived.
The second discrepancy involved a set of benches priced far above the approved estimate.
The third concerned a payment to a company called Voss Community Contracting.
Emma recognized the surname.
Raymond Voss.
Rook.
The Iron Ravens' treasurer.
She didn't immediately assume wrongdoing. Nonprofit projects often involved donors who also owned businesses, and properly disclosed arrangements could be legitimate.
But the invoices lacked the supporting detail she expected.
Then she noticed payments being made from the charitable campaign's account to several subcontractors that appeared connected through common addresses or ownership information.
The total was no longer small.
More than one hundred and sixty thousand dollars had been designated for work Emma couldn't fully verify.
She reported her concerns through the hospital's internal channels.
A compliance review began.
The project administrator requested additional documentation from the club's charitable fund.
Rook responded with irritation.
He accused Emma of making ordinary bookkeeping unnecessarily difficult.
Then he offered to explain everything privately.
Emma declined.
She wanted the records reviewed through the proper process.
The following week, someone left a message on her office phone.
“Stop digging into things you don't understand.”
There was no name.
Emma saved the message.
Then she told her supervisor.
She also told her older sister, Mara.
Mara was frightened.
“You should let somebody else handle it.”
Emma shook her head.
“It's my job to make sure the donations go where they're supposed to.”