Chapter 3 - THE WOMAN WHO VANISHED FROM PAYROLL
Margaret Ellis was sitting beside a window when Emily entered the rehabilitation center.
Her gray hair had been cut short.
A pale scar crossed her temple.
One hand rested motionless in her lap.
Emily stopped in the doorway.
“Margaret?”
The older woman looked up.
For several seconds, she seemed confused.
Then her face changed.
“Emily.”
Emily crossed the room.
She knelt beside the chair.
“I thought you were gone.”
Margaret began crying.
“I tried to call.”
Emily held her hand.
“Why didn't you?”
“They took my phone.”
“Who?”
Margaret looked toward the hallway.
“Please close the door.”
Gabriel, who had accompanied Emily at her request, stepped outside.
Roman remained near the doorway.
Margaret saw him.
Her expression hardened.
“Bellini.”
Roman nodded.
“Mrs. Ellis.”
“Your father would have known.”
The accusation landed.
Roman did not defend himself.
“Maybe,” he said. “But I didn't. And I should have.”
Margaret studied him.
Then looked back at Emily.
“I found two payroll systems.”
“We know.”
“No,” Margaret whispered. “You found the one they wanted you to find.”
Roman stepped closer.
“What do you mean?”
Margaret struggled to speak.
“The money wasn't only going out.”
Emily frowned.
“It was coming in.”
Margaret nodded.
“Cash deposits. Guest accounts. Fake overtime. Employees who weren't even working.”
Roman felt the room change.
His father had used the hotel as a financial hub for illegal gambling operations decades earlier.
Roman believed he had dismantled those systems.
But if somebody had revived them, the missing wages were only one piece of a larger scheme.
Margaret reached beneath her chair cushion.
She removed a small plastic envelope.
Inside was a key.
“Locker seventy-two,” she whispered.
“Where?”
“Old laundry annex.”
Emily took it.
Margaret gripped her wrist.
“Don't trust Keller.”
“We don't.”
“Don't trust the people who hired him either.”
Roman became still.
“Who hired him?”
Margaret looked at Roman.
“Your uncle.”
***
Victor Bellini had been Roman's father's younger brother.
Sixty-three.
Elegant.
Charismatic.
A man who wore expensive watches and called every employee by their first name.
He had helped Roman take control of the family businesses after his father's death.
Roman trusted him more than almost anyone.
When Roman returned to the hotel, Victor was waiting in his office.
“I hear you've suspended Keller.”
Roman removed his coat.
“Yes.”
“Over payroll discrepancies?”
“Among other things.”
Victor sighed.
“Roman, hotels lose money through accounting errors every day.”
“Millions?”
Victor's expression shifted.
“Don't exaggerate.”
Roman looked at him.
“Why did you recommend Keller?”
“He was qualified.”
“Who checked his references?”
“Human Resources.”
Roman opened a file.
“Grand Meridian Consulting.”
Victor glanced at it.
“What about it?”
“Your signature authorized the first payment.”
Silence.
Victor smiled.
“You're investigating me?”
“I'm asking a question.”
“Careful, nephew.”
Roman felt something familiar beneath the older man's charm.
A warning.
Victor leaned closer.
“Your father built this hotel with men who understood loyalty.”
Roman held his gaze.
“And what did loyalty cost the employees?”
Victor's smile disappeared.
“You've been spending too much time with that housekeeper.”
Roman said nothing.
Victor turned toward the door.
“Get rid of her before she becomes a problem.”
After he left, Roman called Gabriel.
“Put independent security on Emily.”
Gabriel hesitated.
“Without telling her?”
Roman closed his eyes.
“No.”
He remembered Emily's words.
I listen before I decide what they're worth.
May you like
“Ask her what precautions she wants.”
---
