Chapter 3 - SOMEBODY WANTED THE STARSEmily knew something was wrong before she opened the apartment door.
For several seconds, Emily didn’t move.
The cleaning rag slipped from her fingers.
“Rory?”
Her face lost all color.
She ran across the room.
“What are you doing here?”
Rory immediately started crying.
It was as though reaching her mother had finally given the child permission to stop being brave.
Emily dropped to her knees and pulled her close.
“You cannot leave Mrs. Alvarez’s apartment by yourself. Do you understand me? You cannot ever—”
“I wanted to help.”
Emily closed her eyes.
“I know, baby.”
“They didn’t pay you.”
Emily’s embarrassment arrived before her anger.
Vincent recognized it instantly.
She glanced at him, then at Marcus and the two security officers standing near the ballroom doors.
“Mr. Kane?”
“You know who I am.”
“Everyone does.”
Vincent held out the work log.
Emily stared at it.
Then at Rory.
“You took that from my kitchen?”
Rory nodded.
Emily covered her face for a moment.
Vincent expected excuses.
Instead, she stood.
“I’m sorry my daughter interrupted your meeting.”
“You’re apologizing?”
“She shouldn’t have been there.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Emily’s eyes hardened.
“I don’t know what you want me to say.”
“The truth.”
She laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“The truth costs people like me jobs.”
Vincent looked around the enormous ballroom.
Crystal chandeliers.
Imported marble.
Fresh flower arrangements waiting for an evening charity gala.
A bottle of wine on one of the tables cost more than Emily probably earned in a week.
“How much does Sterling owe you?”
Emily hesitated.
“Seven thousand eight hundred and forty dollars before overtime.”
Vincent’s gaze sharpened.
“You calculated it?”
“Every dollar.”
“And tips?”
“Another twenty-three hundred, approximately.”
“Approximately?”
“The company stopped giving us tip reports.”
“When?”
“Eleven weeks ago.”
Seventy-seven days.
Vincent understood.
“Why didn’t you quit?”
Emily looked toward Rory.
That answered most of it.
But she explained anyway.
“My rent increased. Rory’s daycare wanted a deposit I didn’t have. My car died in January. Sterling kept promising payroll would be fixed every Friday. If I walked away, I lost everything he already owed me.”
“You could have filed a complaint.”
“I did.”
David Sterling’s voice entered from the hallway.
“There you are.”
Emily’s entire posture changed.
Shoulders tightened.
Chin lowered.
Fear.
Vincent saw it.
David entered with his attorney, Peter Voss.
“What exactly is happening here?” David demanded.
Emily took Rory’s hand.
“Mr. Sterling.”
David ignored her.
He addressed Vincent.
“This employee has a history of instability.”
Emily’s head snapped up.
“What?”
“She has received multiple disciplinary warnings.”
“That’s not true.”
David shrugged.
“Human Resources has documentation.”
“You don’t even have HR anymore. You fired Samantha in March.”
Peter Voss stepped forward.
“Emily, I recommend you stop speaking.”
Vincent almost smiled.
“You recommend?”
Peter turned toward him.
“This is an internal employment matter.”
Vincent looked at Marcus.
“Lock the ballroom doors.”
Click.
David stared.
“You can’t imprison us.”
“No one is imprisoned. The service exit is open.”
Marcus added, “It leads directly to two state labor investigators who arrived five minutes ago.”
David went still.
Emily looked at Vincent.
“You called them?”
“I called several people.”
“Why?”
Vincent held up the work log.
“Because your daughter showed me this.”
He pointed to the purple stars.
Emily’s eyes filled.
She looked away.
Rory wrapped both arms around her leg.
Vincent softened his voice.
“She says those are nights you didn’t eat.”
Emily crouched beside her daughter.
“Baby, listen to me. Mommy was fine.”
“You said you ate chicken.”
“I did sometimes.”
“No.”
Rory’s tiny voice broke.
“I looked in your lunch box.”
Emily couldn’t answer.
David rolled his eyes.
“This performance is becoming absurd.”
Vincent turned.
That small movement silenced everyone.
“Performance?”
“Vincent, think like a businessman. Employees exaggerate hardship because it creates leverage.”
Vincent walked toward him.
“Is that what you think this is?”
“I think Emily is using her child to manipulate you.”
Emily suddenly stepped forward.
“No.”
Her fear disappeared.
“You can say whatever you want about me. You do not blame my daughter.”
David’s eyebrows rose.
“There she is. That attitude is why you’ve had problems.”
“What problems?”
“You walked out during the Fielding reception.”
“My daughter had a fever of one hundred and four.”
“You abandoned your station.”
“I finished eleven hours of a twelve-hour shift.”
“You signed an availability agreement.”
“I am a mother.”
“You’re an employee.”
Vincent looked at Emily.
“How many times did he threaten your job?”
She hesitated.
Then lifted her eyes.
“Almost every day.”
Marcus handed Vincent a tablet.
“We’ve got something.”
The company records investigators had requested were already being mirrored from Sterling Hospitality’s cloud account pursuant to an emergency preservation notice.
Marcus scrolled.
“Sterling’s payroll system lists Emily as terminated seventy-nine days ago.”
Emily stared at him.
“What?”
Vincent looked at the work log.
“She worked seventy-seven days since then.”
Marcus nodded.
“And she’s not alone.”
He turned the screen.
A spreadsheet contained names.
Dozens.
Waiters.
Dishwashers.
Cleaners.
Bartenders.
Temporary event workers.
All classified as terminated.
All apparently continuing to appear on schedules.
Emily whispered, “Oh my God.”
David’s attorney stepped closer.
“We are done here.”
Marcus swiped again.
“No. We’re just getting started.”
He displayed another file.
Payments marked as employee wages had been transferred somewhere.
Not to employees.
To a consulting company named North Crescent Staffing.
Vincent recognized the address immediately.
It belonged to a vacant building owned by one of David’s cousins.
“How much?” Vincent asked.
Marcus answered quietly.
“Preliminary total? Eight hundred and sixty thousand dollars.”
David turned toward the exit.
The doors opened.
Two investigators stood outside.
So did three employees Emily recognized.
One was seventy-two-year-old dishwasher Manuel Reyes.
Another was a single father named Jamal Brooks.
The third was an undocumented kitchen worker named Ana Morales.
All three held notebooks.
All three looked terrified.
Vincent stepped aside.
“You wanted the truth, David?”
The investigators entered.
Vincent nodded toward the employees.
“Looks like it came with witnesses.”
David’s expression changed.
Not fear.
Not yet.
Hatred.
And it was aimed directly at Emily.
Vincent noticed that too.
As investigators began asking questions, Vincent leaned toward Marcus.
“Put protection on Emily and Rory.”
Marcus frowned.
“You think Sterling will retaliate?”
Vincent watched David.
“I think men who steal from hungry mothers rarely become more reasonable when somebody finds the receipts.”
That night, Emily would learn Vincent Kane had been right.
May you like
Because at 11:42 p.m., someone broke into her apartment.
And the only thing they stole was the purple-star work log.
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