Chapter 9 - The Woman in the Red Coat.
Nora Price arrived at Petit Mont at 10:47 that night.
She wore a red wool coat over jeans and carried a thick brown envelope beneath one arm.
She looked thirty, perhaps a little older, but exhaustion made her seem older than Olivia.
Renee met her at the employee entrance.
Vivian and Olivia waited nearby.
Marcus had been asked to remain upstairs with his attorney and the city officer.
Theodore had gone silent after reading his nephew's message.
Nora saw Olivia and stopped.
For a moment, neither woman spoke.
Then Olivia crossed the corridor and hugged her.
"You came."
Nora held her tightly.
"I should have come sooner."
Vivian looked away to give them privacy.
When Nora released Olivia, she noticed Vivian.
"You're her mom."
"Yes."
Nora studied her for a moment.
"She talks about you all the time."
Vivian looked at Olivia.
Her daughter lowered her eyes.
That small gesture hurt.
It meant Olivia had not been silent because she did not trust her mother.
She had been silent because she thought telling her would make the danger larger.
Renee asked Nora about the envelope.
"Copies," Nora said.
"Of what?"
"Everything I could keep."
They moved into a small staff meeting room away from the kitchen.
Nora spread the documents across a table.
Pay stubs.
Schedules.
Invoices.
Letters demanding repayment.
A copy of the settlement agreement Olivia had photographed.
And one bank statement showing an $18,500 payment from Bell Dining Group.
Theodore stared at it.
"Simon authorized this?"
Nora looked at him.
"Simon negotiated it."
"With your lawyer?"
"I didn't have a lawyer."
Theodore's expression changed.
"Then who represented you?"
Nora laughed without humor.
"Nobody."
She tapped the settlement.
"Simon told me this was the only way to stop the debt from growing."
Renee asked her to describe the debt.
Nora took out a statement.
"It started at four thousand dollars for training."
She placed another page beside it.
"Then nine thousand after a banquet because Marcus said I wasted ingredients."
Another page.
"Then twenty-one thousand because a mixer stopped working during my shift."
She placed down the last statement.
"Forty-one thousand by the time I tried to leave."
Olivia stared at the numbers.
"Exactly like mine."
Nora nodded.
"That's why I contacted you."
Vivian looked at her.
"How did you know about Olivia?"
Nora hesitated.
"Elena."
The pastry cook.
The same woman whose name had appeared on an envelope in the cellar.
Renee frowned.
"Where is Elena now?"
Nobody knew.
Daniel checked the kitchen.
Her station was empty.
Her coat was gone from the employee rack.
Marcus had not been the only person who had disappeared from the line during the confusion.
Vivian thought of the anonymous messages.
"Was Elena texting me?"
Nora looked confused.
"Texting you?"
Vivian showed her the messages.
Nora shook her head.
"I don't know that number."
Olivia read them again.
"Who else knew about the cellar?"
Nora looked toward Theodore.
"Simon."
Theodore stiffened.
"How?"
"He met me down there once."
Theodore closed his eyes briefly.
"Why?"
"Because he didn't want Marcus to know he was talking to me."
That answer changed the shape of the story again.
Simon had signed the settlement.
Simon had met Nora secretly.
Simon had warned Theodore not to trust Marcus.
Maybe he had been helping.
Or maybe he had been protecting himself.
Renee asked Nora whether Simon admitted knowing about the deductions.
"He said he knew something was wrong with payroll."
"Did he say who was responsible?"
Nora nodded.
"He said Marcus created the charges."
Theodore exhaled.
Then Nora continued.
"But he also said the company kept part of the money."
Theodore's relief vanished.
Vivian leaned forward.
"How?"
Nora pulled out a printed email.
The sender was Simon Bell.
The recipient was a generic accounting address.
The subject line read RECOVERY ADJUSTMENTS.
The email instructed accounting to route certain employee deductions into a training recovery account.
At the bottom was a forwarded message from Theodore's corporate email.
It contained only three words.
APPROVED. PROCEED QUIETLY.
Theodore stared at the page.
"I never wrote that."
Marcus's attorney, standing in the doorway, spoke for the first time.
"Then you have a much larger problem than my client."
Everyone turned.
Marcus stood behind him.
He looked calm again.
"Tell them, Theodore."
Theodore's voice was low.
"Tell them what?"
Marcus smiled.
May you like
"Tell them who had access to your email."
Theodore slowly looked toward the empty place where his nephew Simon had been standing earlier.
