Chapter 8 - The People Who Watched
The clippers hadn’t come out of nowhere.
That fact lodged beneath my ribs.
For days, I had pictured a drunken decision.
Cruel.
Fast.
Stupid.
Now there was a receipt.
Rachel cautioned me.
“Buying them doesn’t prove what he intended.”
“No. But somebody should ask.”
Detective Lena Brooks did.
She interviewed Dennis for nearly two hours.
When he came out, he told a reporter the clippers had been purchased for a staff fundraiser.
There had never been a staff fundraiser.
Mia said so publicly.
Within an hour, her old address appeared beneath a comment calling her a liar.
We moved her to a hotel that night.
She stood in the doorway with a grocery bag full of clothes.
“I hate this,” she said.
“I know.”
“No. I hate that I need him.”
She meant Dominic.
I looked toward the man waiting quietly near the elevator.
“So do I, sometimes.”
Mia blinked.
“Not because of who he is,” I said. “Because help shouldn’t depend on knowing somebody powerful.”
The next morning, we asked Rachel to arrange independent legal help for the other employees.
Dominic paid the bills without asking for names or access to their statements.
It was the first useful thing his money could do without taking over the story.
Meanwhile, witnesses began remembering.
A guest remembered hearing me say no.
A bartender remembered Dennis telling security to leave Preston’s table alone.
A man who had filmed from across the lounge remembered deleting his video because his wife told him it looked bad.
Brooks asked him whether the file was still in his deleted folder.
It was.
That afternoon, we watched seventeen seconds nobody had edited.
My arm bent behind me.
Preston’s hand at the back of my neck.
The clippers passing through my hair.
My own voice sounded unfamiliar.
“Stop. Please stop.”
Dominic stood up.
I caught his wrist.
“Stay.”
He sat.
When the video ended, nobody spoke.
Then Rachel’s assistant forwarded another file.
It had come from a club employee who wanted to remain anonymous.
A recording from the service corridor.
Dennis’s voice was clear.
“Not yet. Wait until she brings the cake.”
A second man laughed.
May you like
Preston.
“Make sure security doesn’t ruin it.”
