“And you stayed doing the same job?”
“Yes.”
“Same building?”
“Yes.”
“Same supervisor?”
“Mostly.”
“Pay?”
He looked uncomfortable.
“Lower.”
“How much?”
“About eighteen percent.”
The CEO stared.
“Benefits?”
“Lost pension contribution.”
“Insurance changed.”
She felt something sharp in her chest.
Outsourcing employees to a related vendor.
Reducing pay.
Then billing Meridian more.
Now the financial pattern had a human face.
“Would you mind talking to the chairman?”
The porter looked terrified.
“Am I in trouble?”
“No.”
She answered immediately.
“I think we might be.”
That afternoon, the audit expanded.
By midnight, investigators had discovered North Shore was not simply overbilling.
It had absorbed thirty-one former Meridian support employees.
Facilities.
Mailroom.
Reception overflow.
Event setup.
They were moved from company payroll onto the vendor’s payroll.
Their wages dropped an average of fourteen percent.
Benefits were reduced.
Meridian, meanwhile, paid North Shore rates that were twenty-six percent higher than the old internal cost.
The difference went somewhere.
Part covered vendor expenses.
Part became profit.
A significant amount flowed through distributions to the director’s brother-in-law.
Then from him into a real-estate LLC.
That LLC owned a condominium.
The condominium was occupied by the director’s adult son.
The CEO stared at the ownership records at 1:17 in the morning.
The chairman sat across from her in the conference room.
His tie had been removed.
Coffee had gone cold.
“She knew.”