“Debra asked me to look into a few things back in the spring,” Margaret said, her voice perfectly even. “I’ve had a paralegal friend at your company running some quiet checks ever since. Public employment records. A handful of civil filings. A few professional networking trails that weren’t hard to follow once you knew where to look. Two other executives, at two entirely different firms. Sudden job changes. Abrupt departures. Both men left their positions within months of Rachel’s arrival at each company. Both of their marriages ended shortly afterward.”
She turned another page and kept going, her voice never once rising or wavering. “The pattern is remarkably consistent, actually. She takes a position as an assistant or a junior associate, somewhere close enough to the executive floor to hear things. She learns who’s dissatisfied at home, who feels underappreciated, who happens to be sitting on money that isn’t technically theirs. Then she waits. Sometimes six months. Sometimes closer to a year. And then she simply becomes available at exactly the right moment.”
