Chapter 5 - LOCKER FOURTEEN
For three seconds, Maya couldn’t speak.
They had taken pieces of her conversation and rearranged them into something dirty.
Adrian broke the silence.
“The cuts are obvious with headphones. I’ll have the file examined. Don’t confront him alone again.”
“I wasn’t alone. His security man was there.”
“That doesn’t help us.”
“No,” she said. “It doesn’t.”
She found the staff changing room behind the laundry.
Locker fourteen sat beneath a cracked ceiling tile.
Inside was a canvas bag, a paperback, and a brown envelope.
Maya photographed everything before touching it.
The envelope contained wage statements, handwritten shift schedules, and copies of documents bearing employees’ signatures.
Except the signatures repeated.
Same loops. Same angle. Same tiny break in the ink.
Copied onto different forms.
Maya knew the trick immediately.
The official payroll listed full wages.
The workers’ bank deposits showed less.
The missing money appeared elsewhere as employee loan repayments.
Loans they might never have received.
At the bottom lay a photograph of a woman in a hospital bed.
Lena’s mother.
On the back, someone had written a date and three words.
Asked about deductions.
Maya called Adrian again.
“I’m sending images. Original documents stay with the witness.”
“Are you safe?”
“For now.”
She heard a shoe scrape outside.
Maya turned.
Daniel stood in the doorway.
“You shouldn’t be in here.”
“Did you know about the deductions?”
His face changed.
That was enough.
“How long?”
“Maya—”
“How long?”
He looked at the envelope.
“I signed the monthly summaries. I didn’t handle payroll.”
“You run operations.”
“Victor handled finance.”
“You saw the stairs. You saw the exits.”
Daniel’s eyes dropped.
“I have a daughter.”
Maya shut the locker.
“So does Lena’s mother.”
He flinched.
From the hallway came Cal’s voice.
“Check the laundry.”
Daniel stepped inside and lowered his voice.
“They’re looking for you.”
“Then they can find me.”
“With that envelope? They’ll say you stole personnel records.”
“Lena gave me the key.”
“Then they’ll go after her.”
Maya hesitated.
Daniel reached behind a detergent shelf and pulled out a small black drive.
“I copied the corridor cameras after the accident. Victor told me to delete the recording.”
“Did you?”
“From the server.”
He held out the drive.
“I kept this.”
Maya took it.
Footsteps approached.
Daniel pointed toward a narrow door.
“Loading dock. Turn left.”
She started toward it.
Then stopped.
“What’s on the recording?”
May you like
Daniel looked as if the answer hurt.
“Lena’s mother didn’t fall by herself.”
