Then I walked back to my desk.
“If you’re not comfortable with it, I’m sorry.”
***
Three days later, my colleague Diane reported her ring missing.
Diane had six years at the company and a very particular way of looking at new hires, which was the way you look at something that hasn’t earned the right to be where it is yet.
She had never really been kind to me, which was fine by me.
The search went desk by desk, methodical and uncomfortable, and when it reached my jacket hanging on the back of my chair, someone reached into the pocket and pulled out a diamond ring.
The room went completely still. I felt the weight of every eye in the office shift toward me.
She had never really been kind to me.
“I didn’t take it,” I blurted out, my eyes wide, and my heart racing.
Several people shifted. I looked at Diane.
She stood perfectly still.
The silence didn’t last long.
“You should’ve just taken it, man,” someone muttered from behind me.
“Yeah,” another voice said. “You’re the new one.”
“Call the cops,” someone else added.
“Please,” I pleaded. “I didn’t take it.”
“Call the cops.”
Anna came in within five minutes.
She didn’t raise her voice. She didn’t make a speech. She simply said, “I heard everything. Let’s look at the CCTV footage.”
The security manager brought it up on the conference room screen, and we all stood there and watched.
The timestamp was from that morning. The printer was across the room from my desk. I was at the printer.
And Diane was at my jacket.
You could see her hand go in and come back out.
Anna paused the footage at that exact frame.
And Diane was at my jacket.
