Chương 10
Everyone waited.
“What happened Friday is not permission to turn Victoria Hale into employee entertainment.”
A banquet manager looked down.
Maya continued.
“No gossip in guest areas. No sharing security footage. No photographing internal documents. No harassment of anyone associated with the family.”
An assistant manager raised a hand halfway.
“What if press calls us?”
“Refer them to communications.”
“What if they ask personal questions?”
“Same answer.”
A housekeeping supervisor said, “People are angry.”
“I know.”
“Some people have stories.”
“I know.”
“They’ve been quiet a long time.”
Maya nodded.
“Then the investigator’s information is posted in every staff area. Nobody needs management permission to contact her.”
The room shifted.
That mattered.
A front office manager said, “Are complaints anonymous?”
“They can be.”
“Can employees bring representation?”
“Yes.”
“Will managers see statements?”
“Not unless required for follow-up.”
Someone at the far end asked, “What if the complaint is about you?”
Maya looked toward the voice.
It was a young food-and-beverage supervisor.
Good question.
“Same process.”
He looked surprised.
Maya wrote something on her pad.
“What?”
He shook his head.
“Nothing.”
“Say it.”
“I didn’t think you’d say that.”
“Neither did I until you asked.”
Several people smiled.
The tension eased.
For three minutes.
Then the executive chef said they were forty thousand dollars over monthly labor budget and nobody smiled anymore.
That was work.
On Monday morning, Maya officially started her job.
There was no ceremony.
Her access permissions changed in the system at 6:02 a.m.
At 6:10, she got coffee from the staff cafeteria and spilled a little on her shirt.
At 6:45, a fire alarm malfunction forced engineering to isolate a sensor on the ninth floor.
At 7:30, the incoming NFL team requested an entire service elevator that operations had not promised them.
At 8:05, Maya received an email from Victoria.
Subject: Meeting.
The body contained one sentence.
We need to talk without my father.
Maya stared at it.
Then she forwarded it to Harriet.
Harriet called immediately.
“If you meet, do it with counsel.”
“No.”
“That was not advice I expected you to reject so quickly.”
“I’m not meeting her with counsel.”
“Why?”
“Because then it’s a deposition.”
“Maya, she publicly accused you of attacking her.”
“I know.”
“She may be trying to manipulate you.”
“I know.”
“She may record you.”
“I assume she will.”
Harriet sighed.
“What do you want from the meeting?”
Maya looked through the glass wall of her office.
Lena passed pushing a cart of bottled water.
“I want to hear what she says when her father isn’t there.”
Harriet was silent.
Then, “Public place.”
“Yes.”
“Do not discuss settlement.”
“Fine.”
“Do not threaten her employment or finances.”
“She doesn’t work here.”
“Do not get clever.”
Maya smiled.
“I’m never clever.”
“That may be the first false statement you’ve given me.”
They met at a bakery two neighborhoods away.
Victoria arrived eleven minutes late wearing jeans, a cream blouse, large sunglasses, and no diamond necklace.
She looked younger without the gown.
Not kinder.
Just more ordinary.
She sat across from Maya.
“You brought nobody.”
“You asked me not to.”
Victoria removed her sunglasses.
Her eyes were tired.
“You look better.”
Maya touched her lip.
“You don’t.”
Victoria almost smiled.
Then didn’t.
A barista brought coffee.
Neither woman had ordered food.
Victoria wrapped both hands around the cup.
“My lawyer told me not to come.”
“So did mine.”
“Harriet isn’t your lawyer.”
Maya said nothing.
Victoria noticed.
“You knew I’d looked into you.”
“I assumed.”
“I looked into you before Friday.”
Maya’s attention sharpened.
“When?”
“Thursday.”
“Why?”
Victoria looked toward the window.
“My father told me he had hired someone.”
“He told you my name?”
“No.”
Maya waited.
Victoria stirred the coffee.
“He said the new GM had run the Baltimore Ashford.”
Maya had.
“He said you were forty-two.”
Maya blinked.
Victoria looked at her.
“That part was funny.”
“I’m twenty-seven.”
“I know that now.”
“Why would he say forty-two?”
“I don’t know.”
Maya did.
Richard had likely been referring to another finalist.
That mattered less than the next question.
“So when you saw me Friday?”
“I didn’t know you were the person he hired.”
“But you knew someone had been hired.”
“Yes.”
“And you were angry.”
Victoria looked at her.
“He fired Martin.”
“The previous GM resigned.”
“No. My father forced him out.”
Maya had heard another version.
“Why?”
“Because the hotel’s numbers were down.”
“That wasn’t the only reason.”
“You already know everything?”
“No.”
“That hasn’t stopped you acting like it.”
Maya let that pass.
Victoria leaned back.
“Martin was loyal.”
“To who?”
“My family.”
“There’s that word again.”
Victoria’s eyes narrowed.
“You think family means corruption.”
“I think people here use it when they don’t want to say authority.”
Victoria looked at the table.
For the first time, she seemed less angry than exhausted.
“My mother built that hotel.”
“Your parents built it.”
“My mother built what people loved about it.”
Maya remembered Richard saying almost the same thing.
“Okay.”
“She knew every department head’s children. She went to funerals. She covered medical bills. She remembered birthdays.”
“That sounds generous.”
“It was.”
Victoria’s voice sharpened.
“You don’t have to sound surprised.”
“I don’t.”
“You do.”
Maya looked at her.
“You hit me because you thought I was trespassing.”
Victoria’s face closed.
“There.”
“What?”
“That’s why this is impossible.”
“Because I remember?”
“Because every sentence comes back to that.”
Maya stared.
“It should.”
Victoria looked away.
A child at another table dropped a fork.
His father picked it up and asked for a clean one.
The espresso machine hissed.
Maya waited.
Victoria rubbed the edge of her cup.
“I shouldn’t have hit you.”
The apology landed strangely because it was not quite an apology.
Maya said, “Okay.”
Victoria frowned.
“That’s all?”
“What do you want me to say?”
“I don’t know.”
“Neither do I.”
Victoria looked at her.
“I was angry.”
“So was I.”
“You grabbed me.”
“Yes.”
“You embarrassed me.”
Maya almost laughed.
May you like
“I embarrassed you?”
“You stood there acting like I was stupid.”
