The Missing Carton

Emma stared at Fiona's last email. The trust's old papers mentioned an authorisation register, but nobody had found it. The document about delegated authority explained which jobs could approve unusual payments. It did not show who had approved anything in 2011.

The following morning Fiona rang with news. The records team had found an old storage list from 2012. One line referred to a book of approvals for the travel scheme. Beside it was a box number. But that box was not among the boxes now held in the trust's main store.

“Does that mean the book was destroyed?” Emma asked.

“No. It may have been moved or put in another store. We have no record of its destruction.”

Emma noted the box number. She could not visit the store or see private student records, but Fiona agreed to ask whether other storage lists mentioned the same box.

Sarah came into the room carrying coffee. “At least we know the register existed.”

“We know it was listed in 2012,” Emma said. “We don't know whether the list was correct, or where the book went.”

They checked the information they already had. The September 2011 rules described an administrator, a finance manager and the trust chair. Certain exceptions had to be sent to the chair when they were above a limit. The amount of that limit was still unreadable.

“Malcolm Vale was the chair,” Sarah said quietly.

“That tells us his position. Not that he signed any particular approval.”

Emma remembered Helen Ward's cousin. A letter said one application had been selected. There was no verified record that money had reached the student. Emma would not link the family to an exception without evidence.

That afternoon Fiona found a second reference to the missing box, in a list of papers transferred to an outside storage company. The list did not say whether the box had arrived safely, and the company's name was difficult to read.

“So our next step is the storage company?” Sarah asked.

“First we need the correct company and a record of the transfer.”

Emma opened a fresh page. She wrote three questions: Was the box transferred? Was it received? Does it still exist?

The strange thing was that she was now asking about the journey of a book, not a journey made by a student. But until she could follow the records, she could not follow the money.

At the bottom of the page, she wrote: A missing record is not proof of a missing payment.