“Sarah Bennett will arrive tonight.”
“Corporate operations assumes site oversight until review.”
Douglas became defensive.
“Naomi, with respect, you walked into this plant for one day.”
“Correct.”
“You don’t understand context.”
“Correct.”
“That is why I am not firing you in a hallway.”
He stopped.
Naomi continued.
“I’m preserving authority so employees can speak without reporting through you.”
“That is normal investigation control.”
Douglas had no answer.
Linda whispered:
“I’ve worked here seventeen years.”
Naomi looked.
“That will be considered.”
The words made Linda look more frightened, not less.
Because tenure was no longer shield.
The next seventy-two hours changed Dayton Components more than the public would ever know.
Sarah arrived at 7:20 that evening with two corporate HR investigators and outside employment counsel.
Aaron joined remotely.
Finance froze manual timecard edits.
Internal audit copied system logs.
The staffing agency was instructed not to remove, reassign, or contact any Dayton worker about the investigation without corporate approval.
That was important.
Temporary workers often disappeared from a site quietly when complaints became inconvenient.
Naomi refused.
“No one loses assignment because they spoke.”
“What if performance issue already documented?” staffing manager asked.
“Then preserve and review.”
“No blanket immunity.”
“But no sudden separations.”
At 8:10, Naomi finally changed clothes.
She stood in executive conference room wearing navy trousers and a white blouse while her gray apron sat folded in a plastic evidence bag—not because it was legal evidence, but because Sarah had collected all items from incident area.
The toilet brush was not bagged dramatically.
It was cleaned and returned to sanitation equipment.
Naomi specifically insisted.
Sarah looked surprised.
“Why?”
“Because it’s a toilet brush.”
“Not a relic.”
“Fine.”
Naomi sat.
Her feet hurt.
Malcolm entered with payroll update.
“Funds released.”
“Any delay?”
“None.”
“How much overpayment risk from using original punches?”
“Maybe twenty-one thousand.”
“Fine.”
“Board will ask.”
“I’ll answer.”
He sat.
Then:
“I missed this.”
Naomi looked.
“Finance did.”
“Yes.”
“We saw adjustments.”
“Yes.”
“I accepted explanation.”
“Yes.”
He rubbed his face.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize to me.”
“Who?”
“People who lost minutes.”
He nodded.
“You think I should resign?”
Naomi almost smiled.
“Executives love resigning when staying to repair feels worse.”
Malcolm looked.
“That sounds like no.”
“It sounds like we don’t know your accountability yet.”
“Fair.”
Naomi leaned back.
“Did you ever visit Dayton payroll office?”
“Twice.”
“Talk to temps?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“It’s not what CFO normally does.”
“Maybe.”
“Or maybe we built dashboards that let us feel close to people whose wages we only saw as variance.”