Chapter Ten: The Other Account
Forest Assembly Events was registered at a small commercial building near the old garment district.
Olivia called the number attached to its invoices and reached an answering service.
The attendant would not identify the company representative without an appointment.
Thomas asked whether she could forward a request for the urgent recall of a food product.
She promised to pass the message along immediately.
Within ten minutes a man called back, introducing himself as Adrian Kroll.
Thomas put the call on speaker with Simone, Walter, Olivia, and Lily present.
“I understand you’ve been upsetting our customers,” Kroll said.
“I’m trying to confirm the source of the mushroom lot you sold us,” Thomas replied.
“The lot meets our commercial specifications.”
“Can you give us the identities of the specialists who assessed the wild mushrooms?”
“Our sourcing methods are proprietary.
”
Walter leaned forward.
“My name is on your advertisements.”
A pause followed.
“Mr. Bennett, I assumed our invitation had reached you.”
“It did.”
“Then this is a misunderstanding.”
“You invited me to inspect a sample, and I told the restaurant that sample was not reliably identified.”
“You didn’t issue a formal rejection.”
“I wasn’t asked to approve a marketing campaign.”
Kroll cleared his throat.
“Perhaps we can resolve this quietly.”
Lily looked at Walter, who remained perfectly still.
“A quiet resolution would start with removing my name from every advertisement,” he said.
“And stopping service of the unverified ingredient.”
“That would be financially disastrous,” Kroll replied.
Thomas glanced at Simone.
“So you agree that service is still planned?”
“I agree that a number of events have been arranged.”
“We have reported our concerns to the proper authorities,
” Simone said.
“You should be contacting every client and telling them not to use the product until it’s assessed.”
Kroll’s voice grew cold.
“You have no evidence of a hazardous product.”
“We have an identification problem that prevents us from knowing what the product is,” Walter answered.
“That’s sufficient reason not to serve it.”
Kroll insisted that independent reviews were under way, but he would not say who was conducting them.
He then offered Thomas a refund of the entire Bellwether shipment in exchange for confidentiality.
Thomas refused.
“Refunding us doesn’t address the other customers.”
“You’re overreacting to a labeling dispute.”
“Then correct the label with verifiable information,” Simone said.
Kroll ended the call.
For a moment nobody moved.
“He knew Walter had refused to approve the sample,” Lily said.
Thomas looked at the disconnected phone.
“He also knew how much we paid for the dinner promotion.”
Olivia examined the separate account’s charges.
Forest Assembly had received a deposit from the Bellwether labeled EVENT DEVELOPMENT.
The payment had been approved through Grant’s discretionary marketing budget.
Another entry showed a transfer to a freelance sales firm associated with Kroll.
“This doesn’t prove wrongdoing on its own,” Olivia said.
“We need to know what each payment purchased.”
“And whether the rest of our marketing staff knew,” Thomas added.
They invited the staff members into a recorded business interview with an independent adviser rather than confronting them in the dining room.
The first employee, Jasmine Pike, recognized the promotional poster.
“Grant told us Walter was a featured speaker,” she explained.
“I asked for a headshot, and he sent the forest photograph.”
“Who approved the wording?” Olivia asked.
“Grant did.”
“Did anyone ask Mr. Bennett?”
“I was told his approval was already in the contract.”
Jasmine grew upset when she learned the claim was false.
She described how the staff had been instructed to present the dinner as a rare opportunity to taste responsibly sourced wild ingredients.
Amina listened from the doorway.
“So guests were paying for confidence as much as for dinner,” she said.
Nobody disputed it.
The second employee, Miles Porter, described a telephone call from Kroll two weeks earlier.
Kroll had promised an additional advertising rebate if the Bellwether sold out its event by Friday.
Grant had approved an extra promotion without informing Simone that new food orders were coming.
The timing explained why the kitchen had expected one shipment and received several.
Lily drew a breath.
“They didn’t just hide a bad delivery,” she said.
“They sold extra events to make the delivery look necessary.”
Thomas rubbed his forehead.
“We paid to promote a dinner whose most important claim hadn’t been verified.”
Walter closed his notebook.
“That’s why the next decision should be about the guests, not the refund.”
