Ellen put the summary on the table and gave us a minute to read it before she spoke.
The amount was six thousand four hundred and twenty pounds.
Not the forty thousand from the supermarket queue. Not a harmless four hundred and twenty caused by duplicate flower paperwork. A bounded sum supported by the review of payments, claims, confirmations and the responses supplied.
I read it again because the number was smaller than the space the questions had occupied in our lives.
Over eighteen months, donations and fundraising had brought in twenty-four thousand six hundred pounds. Verified legitimate spending amounted to fourteen thousand seven hundred and eighty. The misapplied expenditure totalled six thousand four hundred and twenty. The remaining balance was three thousand four hundred.
The figures added up. This time, the descriptions behind them had been checked too.
Ellen explained that the separately recorded advance to Priya and its full repayment were shown as loan movements, not counted again as fundraising income or a grant expense. They had no net effect on these figures. Transfers and duplicate paperwork had been dealt with consistently so the summary did not inflate either the loss or the good the fund had done.
“The four hundred and twenty from the disputed flower claims is included in the six thousand four hundred and twenty,” she added. “It is not additional.”
Vivienne made a note, although the sentence was already printed in front of her.
The questioned reimbursements had been traced to payments to Celia. Where she had supplied evidence of genuine authorised costs, those had been recognised. The final unsupported and misapplied amount excluded them. Supplier confirmations and the retained records contradicted the descriptions attached to the remaining claims, and her account of personal use formed part of the material considered.
“Have we recovered it?” Vivienne asked.
“No. Establishing a sum does not collect it.”
Ellen described the next practical steps within her role: preserve the working papers, give the appropriate information to the investigating authorities, maintain the restrictions already agreed and obtain separate advice about recovery. She did not promise a particular criminal outcome or immediate repayment.
Priya asked about the outstanding commitments to legitimate applicants. Those would be addressed through the new responsible arrangements, not left for individual women to negotiate with Celia.
Then Vivienne asked about Beth’s delayed application.
“There was money to pay it,” Ellen said. “But the guesthouse Beth was asking about appears in the false claims too. A call about her booking would have meant speaking to a supplier who could contradict Celia’s paperwork.”
“So that was why she made Beth wait?”
“That is the connection we’ve found. Celia would have to answer the question about why.”
I remembered Beth reducing her estimate because she thought she had asked for too much.
My hands tightened beneath the table.
“Will she be told that her request wasn’t the problem?” I asked.
Ellen nodded.
“Yes. And a written decision about the application.”
After the meeting, Priya and I walked to the corner. She looked exhausted enough that I asked whether she was going straight home.
“Yes. Ravi has promised a dinner involving no questions about receipts.”
“An ambitious menu.”
She smiled.
That evening, Beth rang. She had received the explanation concerning her application and read it twice.
“I thought I was the difficult one,” she said.
“You weren’t.”
“I know that now.”
The fund had offered to reimburse the eligible transition costs after the review. Beth had declined. Her first client payments had arrived, and she preferred to finish the private repayment plan we had already agreed.
“That’s your money too,” I said. “You don’t have to prove you can manage.”
“I’m not proving anything. I want this finished without another form.”
I still thought she should take it. She told me the date of the next payment, and I wrote it down.
We spoke about the venue measurement she had completed that afternoon. The doorway was wider than expected. One practical problem had become easier through the simple act of checking it.
After the call, Celia sent me a message asking to speak again.
You know about the money now. But you still don’t understand what happened when I found him.
I left the phone on the table for a moment before replying.
The accounts had closed around a definite loss.
The room at the hall had not yet given up its answer.