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“Yes. One of his students accused him of falsifying data for his research, of tampering with the numbers, so they would fit his theory. At first my father denied, but the papers picked it up. When the evidence became irrefutable, he said maybe the numbers were not totally accurate, but it was by mistake. He brought donors and such, so the university didn’t want to make a big deal out of it, but they didn’t want him as part of faculty anymore. My mother arranged a position for him at a university in Australia, and my parents upped and left. I begged them to stay. Or just my mother for a while. Eitan was a kid still, just out of a grueling military service, and I had baby Gal and I needed their support and help.”
“And did he really cheat?”
“The numbers say he did. He never tried too hard to prove or say otherwise. They found the teaching post in Australia and left.”
“But you’re not like him,” Dafna stated. She got him.
“That’s right. I’ll fight for my good name and my family, and I’ll never play with the numbers.”
Chapter 31
I’ll Put In A Good Word
He arrived home last night from his beautiful weekend, to find his brother and daughter together, and was pleasantly surprised by the state of the apartment.
“Chased everyone off at ten pm, and took your kid to paddleboard on Saturday morning,” Eitan had said. In an undertone, meant for Erez’s ears only, he’d added, “Told her to be nice about Dafna.”
This morning, Schubert ruled his kitchen, meaning his daughter was in a great mood.
He arrived at Kisharti and made his goodbye round. Nurit was on vacation, which was a relief. Passing through the different departments, he received an overwhelming wave of goodwill, which made him feel guilty about what he and Dafna were about to do.
“Coffee?” he asked Dafna as he entered her office with two boiling cups. She raised those gray-brown eyes of hers, and he wondered if he would ever get used to how beautiful she was.
“Thank you.” Her voice was tight, her manner clipped. “Close the door.”
She was right to be nervous—they were about to send unsolicited emails, using an unsolicited email address, plus he was on a tight schedule. He was due at G&L Tractus in two hours. He was meeting the Tractus team leader who was leaving. He wanted to get there an hour early to make informal connections, learn the lay of the land, get a feel of the place. His replacement, the new real estate team leader, had already shown up twice to meet the people and start his overlap training.
It took them some time to go over the data. In the end, they decided to send around 1,500 emails to clients who had been with the company for longer than six months but less than a year.
“I’ll send it in batches,” Dafna said. “Say, three hundred every day, so the answers and requests won’t overwhelm us.”
A knock sounded. They exchanged an anxious look, and then she smiled.
“Right, I nearly forgot about it. I was expecting her. It’s someone I want you to meet. Come in!” Dafna called.
“Hi Dafna!”
The brunette who smiled widely at Dafna’s office door was tall and pretty, with a willowy build, and a mass of curls that encircled her head like an aura. She looked vaguely familiar.
“Hi Avigail, meet Erez.”
Avigail’s eyes scrutinized him.
“Hi, Dafna. I looked at office space here for my startup, but I’m running late. I just came to say hello because you asked me,” she said. “Hey! You’re the barman!”
She was one of Dafna’s three friends.
“Hi, yes, I guess I am.” He was unsure of how much Dafna shared with her friends. “Mostly I’m an accountant at G&L.”
“Erez had been doing Kisharti’s due diligence. He kept it extremely professional.”
“You sound bitter about it,” Avigail laughed, and Erez had to grin at her perception.
“I’ll be going now,” he said. Dafna wanted both him and Avigail out of her hair so she could send the emails and start her regular workday. He was curious why Dafna had arranged for him and Avigail to meet. “You have work.”
“Bye.” She nodded at both of them.
He’d text her later and make plans, since Gal’s mother and brothers were finally due back from the Black Forest. He and Avigail walked together towards the elevator. “You work at G&L, right?”
