Folake Adeyemi met Amara in a corridor outside the executive dining room. It was not scheduled. That made it more useful. Amara had seen photographs of her before: charity galas, foundation events, family portraits beside her husband. In person, Folake seemed less ornamental than the photographs suggested. She carried herself with the calm of someone accustomed to rooms shifting subtly when she entered them.
She wore burgundy and Chanel No. 5. The fragrance caught Amara because it belonged to a different kind of memory than accounting. Her foster mother had once kept an almost-empty bottle of Chanel No. 5 on a dressing table for years because it had been a gift she could not justify replacing. Amara knew the scent before she knew why she was noticing it.
“Ms. Okonkwo,” Folake said.
“Mrs. Adeyemi.”
“I’ve wanted to meet you.”
Amara smiled politely. “I’ve only been here four days.”
Folake’s expression barely changed.
“Yes.”
The answer carried more than agreement.
Amara waited.
Most people rushed to fill silence. Folake did not.
“How is the audit?” she asked eventually.
“Active.”
“Difficult?”
“Those are often the useful ones.”
A small smile touched Folake’s mouth.
“You sound like someone I knew once.”
“An accountant?”
“No.”
The elevator opened at the far end of the corridor. Neither moved. Folake looked at Amara’s face with a familiarity that made her uncomfortable.
“Have we met before?” Amara asked.
“No.”
The answer came quickly enough to be rehearsed.
“But you know who I am.”
“Yes.”
“I am the external forensic accountant.”
Folake held her gaze.
“That too.”
Amara felt the air change. Before she could ask, footsteps approached. Ade Senior appeared around the corner with two executives beside him. He saw his wife first.
Then Amara.
Something passed between husband and wife without language. Ade Senior smiled.
“Ms. Okonkwo. Settling in?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I hear you are thorough.”
“I try to be.”
“Thoroughness is useful. Context is equally important.”
The same argument the lawyers had attempted in writing.
Amara smiled back. “Context usually survives documentation better than people expect.”
One of the executives looked at the floor.
Ade Senior’s smile did not move. “I look forward to reading your conclusions.”
“I look forward to reaching them.”
He continued down the corridor. Folake watched him go. Then she looked at Amara.
“Be careful with context,” she said softly.
Amara frowned.
“Why?”
“Because people who need you to understand them before you understand what they did are usually afraid of the order.”
Before Amara could answer, Folake stepped into the elevator. The doors began to close. Then she said, almost too quietly to hear:
“Some of us have been waiting a very long time.”
The doors shut.
Amara stood alone in the corridor.
The question that unsettled her most now had nothing to do with Matteo Greco.
It was why Folake Adeyemi had looked at her as though she had finally arrived.