And she understood how people used access to manufacture outcomes that looked inevitable when they weren’t.
“They needed you sedated the night of the party,” she said, “not killed, sedated.” “So I’d miss something,” he said, “or sign something, or be unavailable at a critical moment.”
“The IPO filing window,” Imani said. “When is it?” “32 days from now.” She sat with that.
32 days. The shape of it was getting clearer, not fully formed yet, but recognizable.
Celestine inside the house gathering information and access, nudging the estate’s financial infrastructure toward whatever outcome she and Fletcher had planned.
And with Callaway sedated and unavailable at the right moment, a signature could be applied, a transfer could be processed, and by the time he surfaced from whatever the Zolpidem had done to him, enough of the architecture would be in place that unwinding it would cost more than accepting it.
It was patient. It was sophisticated. It was the kind of plan that required someone who understood exactly how much access and engagement could provide.
And had decided coldly that an engagement was worth having. “I need to get into that room,” Imani said.
“You can’t use your current key card.” “I know. Can you have Demarco” “If Demarco updates my system access, Celestine will see it.
She has read access to the estate’s security management dashboard.” He looked at her steadily.
“I made that mistake six months ago when I was trying to be transparent with her.”
Imani thought about that. Then she thought about Otha, the groundskeeper, who ate his sandwich in silence every morning and asked no questions.
And whose key card she’d noticed on her second day hung on a hook beside the garage door sensor panel in a spot no one else seemed to look at.
“Don’t tell me,” Callaway said, reading something in her expression. “I wasn’t going to,” she said.
“Denyability.” He looked at her for a long moment. “You’ve done this kind of thing before.”
“No,” she said. “I’ve just spent my whole life in situations where I had to figure out which doors open for me and which ones I had to find another way through.”
