The SEC liaison's name was Daniel Marsh.
He was thirty-eight, methodical, and had the particular energy of someone who had spent fifteen years investigating financial fraud and had stopped being surprised by human capacity for it without quite stopping being offended. He shook Aria's hand across a conference table in lower Manhattan on a Thursday morning and said: "We've reviewed your documentation package. It's one of the most thorough private compilations we've received in eleven years."
"Thank you," Aria said.
"It's not entirely a compliment," he said pleasantly. "It raises questions about methodology."
"I'm sure it does," she said, equally pleasantly. "Ask them."
He asked them for six hours.
Clara sat beside Aria throughout — present, watchful, occasionally interjecting with the
