Chương 6
Robert removed his glasses. “You are emotional.”
“A six-year-old had to stand in front of my car to get my attention. I hope I’m emotional.”
The board voted to place Alexander on temporary administrative leave while retaining his authority to cooperate with law enforcement as controlling owner. Robert appeared satisfied with the compromise. Alexander suspected he had misunderstood it.
When the call ended, Miriam closed the laptop.
“You volunteered documents that may expose the company to criminal, civil, and regulatory liability.”
“Yes.”
“You admitted possible personal negligence in front of twelve people.”
“Yes.”
“You insulted your mother.”
Alexander rubbed his eyes. “I noticed.”
Miriam gathered her papers, then stopped.
“Your instinct to open everything may be morally correct.”
He looked at her.
“That does not make every impulsive thing you do from this point forward morally correct.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t. That’s why I said it.”
She left him alone.
He remained in Vanessa’s office because he had nowhere useful to go. His apartment was eleven blocks away, but the idea of returning to rooms where every object had been chosen by a designer made him restless. He sat behind Vanessa’s desk, opened the employee directory, and searched Claire Harper’s name.
Her photograph appeared beside a record of eleven years’ service, six commendations, two promotions, and one suspension entered the previous afternoon. The stated reason was suspected manipulation of overtime records.
The approving executive was Nolan Pierce.
The local manager acknowledgment belonged to Vanessa Cho.
Alexander printed the page.
Vanessa returned carrying two coffees. She set one near him, then noticed what he had printed.
“She didn’t manipulate overtime,” Alexander said.
Vanessa sat down slowly.
“Did she?”
“No.”
“Why did you sign?”
“Nolan said they needed to restrict her access while corporate audit reviewed irregularities.”
“What irregularities?”
“Claire had been changing employee hours after payroll closed.”
“That sounds like manipulation.”
“She was restoring hours supervisors removed.”
Alexander looked at her.
Vanessa folded a receipt into smaller and smaller squares. “Housekeepers were clocking out and finishing rooms because the labor targets were impossible. Claire found managers editing time punches to avoid overtime exceptions.”
“Which managers?”
“Paul. Two others. Maybe more.”
“And Grant Morrow?”
“He handled complaints when employees refused to leave.”
“Handled how?”
“I heard things.”
“What things?”
“That he threatened immigration calls. That he photographed people’s addresses. That he told one woman her sister would lose shifts if she spoke to HR.”
“Did you investigate?”
“I asked Nolan.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Vanessa’s fingers stopped moving.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I had been general manager for four months. Occupancy was down. The renovation was over budget. Your father had died, you were acquiring Portland, and Nolan controlled every performance review that mattered.”
“So you let it happen.”
Her face hardened. “You want me to say I was a coward so you can be the man who arrived late and became brave?”
Alexander said nothing.
“You came to this hotel six times last year,” she continued. “Six. You walked through the lobby, ate in the restaurant, met investors upstairs, and left through this entrance. Claire sent three emails to corporate ethics. Rosa sent one. I forwarded two concerns. Your office acknowledged them.”
“I never saw them.”
“That was the system, wasn’t it? Nothing ugly reached you unless it threatened revenue.”
He looked at the printed suspension notice.
Vanessa pushed the coffee toward him. “I signed because Nolan told me Claire had copied confidential payroll files. He said if we didn’t contain it, she would expose employee Social Security numbers and the company would blame me. I told myself suspension gave us time.”
“Time for what?”
“To figure out which fear was bigger.”
“And did you?”
She looked toward the corridor where police officers moved past the frosted glass.
“Yes.”
Alexander did not ask which one. He already knew.
Vanessa provided investigators with Claire’s emails, internal messages from Nolan, and a handwritten notebook she had kept in a locked drawer. The notebook documented staffing instructions Nolan avoided sending electronically. Some were ordinary. Others ordered managers to classify employee injuries as non-work incidents, move overtime into future pay periods, and route maintenance purchases through a vendor called Northstar Facilities Group.
Northstar had received $8.4 million from Reed Hospitality over five years.
Its registered address belonged to a mailbox store in Delaware.
Miriam’s team found that Northstar’s beneficial owner was hidden behind two limited-liability companies. Payments were approved by Nolan and countersigned at different times by Alexander’s father, Robert Gaines, and Alexander himself.
Alexander stared at his digital signature on invoices totaling nine hundred thousand dollars.
“I didn’t sign these.”
Miriam was seated across from him in a temporary workspace police had cleared. “Your credentials did.”
“My assistant used my approval token for routine capital expenses.”
“Did you authorize that?”
“Yes.”
“Then legally and operationally, you approved them.”
He leaned back. “Find out who owns Northstar.”
“We have forensic accountants doing that.”
“Faster.”
Miriam took off her glasses. “Every time you say faster, ten people become more likely to make a mistake.”
He pushed away from the table and walked to the window.
Below, the hotel canopy reflected in the wet avenue. Guests came and went beneath umbrellas. A doorman opened taxi doors. A bride in a cream coat posed for photographs near the fountain while reporters waited on the opposite sidewalk for evidence of a tragedy.
The world had not paused because Claire Harper was missing.
Lily called at ten thirteen.
Elena’s number appeared on his screen. When he answered, neither of them spoke at first.
“Are you still looking?” Lily asked.
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“At the hotel.”
“Did you find Mom?”
“No.”
A small sound came through the phone, perhaps the movement of a blanket.
“You said you would.”
“I said I would bring her back. I didn’t say it would happen tonight.”
“That’s tricking.”
Alexander closed his eyes.
“You’re right. It sounds like tricking.”
“Is she dead?”
The question entered the room like cold air.
May you like
“I don’t know.”
Adults often softened uncertainty for children, believing vagueness was kindness. Alexander could hear his promise inside the silence.
