Chapter 2 - THE NAME IN THE FOLDER
Emily set down the coffeepot.
“Why?”
Roman opened the folder.
“Because she filed three complaints about missing wages before she disappeared.”
The word made Emily's stomach tighten.
“Disappeared?”
“Her personnel record says she was terminated seven months ago.”
Emily sat down.
“Margaret didn't leave voluntarily.”
“Tell me what happened.”
“She worked in laundry for twenty-six years. Her husband needed dialysis. She took every extra shift she could get.”
Roman waited.
“Then she noticed her overtime wasn't appearing on her checks.”
“How much?”
“Sometimes forty dollars. Sometimes two hundred.”
“Did she report it?”
“Yes.”
“To whom?”
“Thomas Keller.”
Roman's expression changed.
Emily continued.
“Three days later, she told me somebody had warned her to stop asking questions.”
“Who?”
“She wouldn't say.”
“Did you tell anyone?”
“I told Human Resources.”
“What happened?”
“They said Margaret was confused.”
Roman glanced at the folder.
“Her employment ended the following week.”
“No,” Emily whispered. “That's what they wrote.”
She reached into her uniform pocket and removed a folded note.
Margaret had given it to her before disappearing.
Roman opened it.
If they say I quit, don't believe them.
The hours are still there.
Ask why the thirteenth floor doesn't exist.
Roman read the final sentence twice.
“The hotel skips thirteen.”
“I know.”
“It's a common architectural convention.”
Emily looked at him.
“Then why is there a locked door between twelve and fourteen?”
***
Twenty minutes later, Roman stood inside the service stairwell.
Emily pointed to the gray steel door.
“That's it.”
His security chief, Gabriel Torres, checked the building plans.
“This space isn't listed.”
Roman frowned.
“Who controls it?”
“According to the maintenance system, nobody.”
Roman looked at the electronic lock.
“Then why does it have power?”
Gabriel called engineering.
An older technician arrived with a maintenance key and a worried expression.
“I was told this area was sealed.”
“By whom?” Roman asked.
“Operations.”
“Thomas Keller?”
The technician nodded.
Roman stepped aside.
“Open it.”
The lock clicked.
The door swung inward.
Beyond it was a narrow corridor lined with filing cabinets.
The air smelled of dust and warm electronics.
Emily followed Roman inside.
One cabinet was labeled:
EMPLOYEE BENEFIT RESERVE — HISTORICAL ACCOUNTS
Roman opened it.
Samuel Price.
Walter Green.
Luis Ortega.
Henry Coleman.
Margaret Ellis.
Every file contained two payroll records.
One showed what employees earned.
The other showed what they actually received.
The difference had been transferred into an account belonging to Grand Meridian Consulting.
Gabriel checked the company registration.
His expression darkened.
“Grand Meridian belongs to Thomas Keller's brother.”
Emily looked at Roman.
“How much money?”
Gabriel began calculating.
“Millions, potentially.”
Roman stared at the files.
His employees had spent decades working beneath his roof.
And someone had been stealing from them while he approved layoffs designed to save even more money.
Emily found Margaret's personnel folder.
The termination acknowledgment was unsigned.
A payment had been processed three weeks after she supposedly left.
It went to the same consulting company.
“Roman,” Emily said.
He turned.
“Margaret didn't just lose her job.”
She held up the record.
“Someone kept collecting money in her name.”
***
That night, Gabriel located Margaret Ellis.
She was alive.
She had been admitted to a rehabilitation center under an abbreviated name after suffering a serious head injury.
Her intake records identified Thomas Keller as the person who brought her there.
Roman called Emily.
“We found her.”
Emily covered her mouth.
“She's alive?”
“Yes.”
“Can I see her?”
“We need to speak with her doctors and make sure she's safe first.”
Emily began crying.
Then Roman said:
“There's something else.”
“What?”
“We found six more employees with similar records.”
Silence.
“Are they missing too?”
“Some were transferred. Others were dismissed under questionable circumstances. We're checking their whereabouts.”
Emily gripped the telephone.
“Roman?”
“Yes?”
“Margaret told me she wasn't afraid of losing her job.”
“What was she afraid of?”
Emily closed her eyes.
“She said she was afraid somebody would discover what she'd found before she could prove it.”
Roman looked at a document Gabriel had just delivered.
A confidential workforce list.
At the bottom was an additional section.
PHASE TWO — PRIORITY REMOVAL
One name appeared first.
Emily Hayes.
Roman felt cold.
The housekeeper he had nearly fired was now a target.
May you like
And someone inside his hotel had already prepared for her disappearance.
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