The Book Inside

Emma was reading the morning news when Fiona Bell called. The trust and the storage company had opened the box under supervision. Two people had checked its labels and written down what they found. The box was not empty.

“Was the approval register inside?” Emma asked.

“There was a book with that title,” Fiona said. “But we must check whether it is the book mentioned in the 2012 list. Some pages are difficult to read.”

Emma put down her coffee. For weeks she had followed the journey of a missing box. Now somebody had finally looked inside it.

Fiona explained that the book contained dates, reference numbers and spaces for approval. Some spaces had initials. Others were empty. The records team had not connected the initials to particular people, and Fiona would not share student names.

“Does it show payments?” Emma asked.

“Approvals, perhaps. We haven't found bank transfers in the book.”

Emma called Sarah. “They found a register. It could help us understand the decisions, but it doesn't tell us who received money.”

“Is Malcolm Vale's name in it?” Sarah asked.

“We don't know. Initials aren't enough to identify anyone.”

In the afternoon Fiona sent a description of the inspection, with no private details. The records team had found a page explaining how entries should be made. It told staff to write a second reference when an exception was resolved. Emma remembered the earlier guide with the same rule.

“That sounds like a match,” Sarah said.

“It makes the book more interesting. We still need to compare the documents.”

One detail caught Emma's attention. The inspection note said that a page near the middle of the book was loose. The paper had not been examined closely, and nobody knew whether any pages were missing. Emma refused to describe it as a page that somebody had removed.

She opened her notebook and wrote three questions. Did the references match the exception records? Could the approvals be linked to real people without guessing? Did any approved payment become a bank transfer?

Before dinner Fiona called again. The team had found a reference in the register that also appeared in the exception guide's sample format. It was not yet linked to a specific payment.

Emma looked towards the window. The investigation had finally reached the book. But finding a book and finding the truth were still two different things.

Before ending the call, Emma asked Fiona to pass on a request if she could reach Claire through a trusted contact. She wanted to hear Claire's own account, not find her address. Fiona promised only to ask whether a private conversation was possible.