The Footbridge

Ash read Sable’s notice twice before he let himself be pleased by it.

The firm said it had suspended sales of its courtesy review service while examining customer correspondence. The notice appeared on the public page where the service had been offered. It did not say that every fee would be returned, that the original losses had been recovered or that Harvey accepted the allegations. Ash checked those omissions as carefully as he checked the sentence he wanted to believe.

It was Monday, four weeks after his first morning at Sable. He had no access to its internal systems now. A public notice was a public notice, not proof of what every employee would say on the telephone. Still, one invitation to pay had been replaced by a suspension. He could be glad of that much.

Leonie had acknowledged receipt of his answers on Friday. She had permission to tell…