Chapter 4 - Behind the Locked Door.
Victor stared at Elena as if the rest of the room had disappeared.
“Where are they?”
Elena’s breathing quickened.
Adrian stepped between them.
“That was the wrong question.”
Victor blinked.
“You should have asked what originals she was talking about.”
The manager’s face tightened.
“I don’t have to explain myself to you.”
Adrian almost smiled.
“You definitely do.”
He turned toward Maribel.
“Where is the office?”
She pointed down the service corridor.
“Past the wine room.”
Victor moved to block the doorway.
“That area contains private personnel files.”
Adrian held up his company credential again.
“So do I.”
Victor’s hand closed around the doorframe.
“You can’t just barge into a manager’s office during service.”
Adrian looked around the half-frozen dining room.
“I think service has already been interrupted.”
He started forward.
Victor did not move.
For one second, neither man spoke.
Then Caleb quietly set his appetizer tray down.
Maribel stepped away from the wall.
The second security guard lowered his eyes.
Victor looked around and realized that no one was standing with him anymore.
He stepped aside.
The office door at the end of the corridor was locked.
Smoke curled from beneath it.
Maribel gasped.
Adrian grabbed the handle.
The metal was warm but not hot.
“Fire extinguisher.”
Caleb ran toward the kitchen.
Victor suddenly pushed past Adrian and slammed his shoulder into the door.
Once.
Twice.
On the third hit, the cheap frame split.
A bitter cloud of paper smoke rolled into the hall.
The shredder bin in the corner was burning.
Someone had emptied a metal trash can into it and touched a flame to the strips.
Caleb arrived with an extinguisher and sprayed the bin until white powder coated the floor.
Adrian covered his mouth with his sleeve.
Elena stood in the doorway behind him.
“That wasn’t burning when I came in.”
Victor rounded on her.
“You came into my office?”
“To ask for my money.”
“You broke in.”
“The door was open.”
Adrian crouched beside the ruined shredder.
Most of the paper had become black curls, but one corner of a sheet remained readable beneath the extinguisher dust.
He lifted it with two fingers.
At the top was a list of employee names.
Beside each name was a dollar amount.
Elena Brooks appeared three times.
$18,300.
$12,600.
$9,400.
Elena stared over his shoulder.
“What is that?”
Adrian’s chest tightened.
“It means this happened more than once.”
Victor backed toward the desk.
“You have no idea what that list is.”
Adrian read the next name.
Maribel Soto.
$7,800.
Maribel went still.
“I never got seven thousand dollars.”
Another server stepped into the hallway.
Then another.
Adrian read more names.
Caleb Dunn.
$11,250.
Anthony Price.
$6,100.
Tasha Green.
$14,900.
Every person who heard a familiar name began talking at once.
Victor slammed both hands on the desk.
“Enough.”
His shout silenced them.
“You people don’t understand accounting.”
Maribel’s voice shook with anger.
“I understand I never got that money.”
Adrian opened the desk drawer.
Victor lunged forward.
“Don’t.”
The warning came too quickly.
Adrian stopped with his hand on the drawer pull.
Victor’s eyes were fixed on it.
Adrian slowly opened the drawer.
Inside lay a stack of photocopied driver’s licenses.
Employee licenses.
Elena’s was on top.
Next to them was a sheet of usernames and temporary passwords.
At the bottom of the drawer sat a small black external drive.
Victor grabbed for it.
Elena stepped back.
Adrian caught Victor’s wrist before his hand reached the drive.
“Don’t touch it.”
Victor’s control finally broke.
“You have no idea what Daniel will do if that leaves this room.”
The words were barely out before Victor realized what he had admitted.
Adrian released his wrist.
“No.”
He looked at the black drive.
“But I’m very interested in finding out.”
Then headlights swept across the frosted glass of the restaurant’s front doors.
A black sedan stopped outside.
May you like
Victor closed his eyes.
Daniel Rowe had arrived.
